The U.S. government is optimistic about the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, Research Director of the Caspian Studies Project at Harvard University Brenda Shaffer stated. Ms. Shaffer took part in the discussions titled "Energy Security: Turkey and States of the Region" held in Ankara. She noted the importance of the soonest settlement of the conflict from the viewpoint of the security of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan export oil pipeline that is of utter significance for Azerbaijan and the whole region. Noting she does not possess sufficient information on the Rambouillet meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani Presidents Brenda Shaffer nevertheless underscored that the potential of the peaceful talks has not been exhausted yet, reported AzerTage news agency.