Red Cross urges Armenia and Azerbaijan to firm up prisoner, body swap

The International Committee of the Red Cross urged Armenia and Azerbaijan to finalise arrangements for it to handle an exchange of detainees and bodies from the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, after a humanitarian ceasefire agreed at the weekend.

"To date we keep discussing intensely with the sides on this topic. But no meaningful agreement has been reached yet that will allow us to actually proceed to such an exchange," ICRC Eurasia regional director Martin Schuepp told a news briefing in Geneva, adding that it was passing proposals “back and forth”.

"So discussions are going on with the sides, and we hope that the conditions will be met in order to actually implement such an operation in the future," Reuters cited him as saying.

Schuepp also called for security guarantees to be provided for ICRC staff.