The United States is doing everything it can so that tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan are de-escalated, State Department spokesperson Ned Price told a briefing on Monday, December 12.

“We have consistently focused on this challenge, on the need to de-escalate tensions, on the need to set these two countries on the path to a lasting, comprehensive settlement,” Price said.

“We, of course, brought the two countries together at the foreign minister level here in Washington. We did that in New York on the margins of the UN General Assembly. And Phil Reeker, our senior advisor, has been actively engaged with officials in both countries to see to it that we are doing everything we can and, most importantly, that these two countries are doing everything they can to see to it that these tensions are de-escalated.”

Tension is building up as a group of Azerbaijanis have blocked a key and the only highway connecting Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh.