On Friday, August 8, the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan will sign a peace agreement in Washington, which will provide the United States with exclusive rights to develop a strategic transit corridor through the South Caucasus. This was reported by Reuters, citing unnamed officials, informs UNN.
Details
The publication reminds that Armenia and Azerbaijan have been in conflict since the late 1980s, when Nagorno-Karabakh – an Azerbaijani region with a predominantly Armenian population – seceded from Azerbaijan with the support of Armenia. Both Armenia and Azerbaijan gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
A peace agreement could transform the South Caucasus, an energy-producing region bordering Russia, Europe, Turkey, and Iran, which is crisscrossed by oil and gas pipelines but torn apart by closed borders and long-standing ethnic conflicts.
It is indicated that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan will sign a framework agreement at the White House aimed at achieving a "concrete path to peace" and resolving the long-standing transit issue.
Armenia plans to grant the United States exclusive special rights for the long-term development of a transit corridor, which will be named "Trump's Route for International Peace and Prosperity."
It is also noted that, in addition, the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan will sign documents requesting the dissolution of the OSCE Minsk Group, which since its creation in 1999 has been chaired by France, Russia, and the United States with the aim of mediating the conflict.
"American officials believe that a peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan could encourage negotiations on Azerbaijan's accession to the Abraham Accords – a package of agreements on the normalization of relations between Israel and four Muslim countries, concluded by Trump during his first term," the publication writes.
Recall
US President Donald Trump will host the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan at the White House on Friday, August 8. This will be an attempt to reach an agreement between the two countries, which have been in a long-standing conflict.