Pompeo confirms plans to hold talks with Azerbaijani and Armenian top diplomats

U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo plans to hold talks with the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan later this week, as he himself told reporters at a briefing on Wednesday. According to Pompeo, the consultations will take place on October 23.

He pointed out that "it’s a complicated situation on the ground." "It’s a complicated diplomatic situation. Our view remains, as the view of nearly every European country, that the right path forward is to cease the conflict, tell them to de-escalate, that every country should stay out, provide no fuel for this conflict, no weapons systems, no support, and it is at that point that a diplomatic solution that would be acceptable to all can potentially be achieved," Pompeo said.

"That’s what I will talk to them about on Friday and I’m anxious to hear from them what they’re seeing on the ground and how we might get closer to what we think is not only in the United States’ best interest but in each of their countries’ best interest as well," the US secretary of state added.

Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry said earlier that the country’s top diplomat Jeyhun Bayramov would meet with Pompeo and the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group in Washington on October 23. Politico said on Monday that Pompeo was expected to hold separate meetings with the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan.