Ambassador James Warlick has once more called on the sides in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to take all measures to respect the ceasefire, and said that this message was once more given by the three co-Chair countries during meetings with the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan last week. The US Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group on Karabakh said that if the sides truly wanted a negotiated settlement they had to reduce tension on the line of contact and the Armenia-Azerbaijan border..
Warlick gave his comments in response to a question put to him by Armenian media.
Incidents continued on the line of contact on Thursday (6 August), with the Azerbaijani side claiming that they had shot down two unmanned Armenian drones. The Armenians deny the claims. Both sides also claim that there have been further violations of the cease fire overnight. Armenia says that one of its soldiers was lightly injured. Armenian Defence Minister Seyran Ohanyan said that Armenian forces where only responding to sniper shots, and were ignoring sporadic shooting.
However Azerbaijan claims that overnight heavy machine guns were used by the Armenian side. The Azerbaijani Minister of Defence Colonel-General Hasanov on Friday concluded an inspection tour of troops on the line of contact. Hasanov expressed satisfaction at the level or readiness of the troops.
source; commonspace.eu with agencies
photo: Ambassador James Warlick (archive picture)
