Blinken hosts Armenian, Azeri foreign ministers, urges return to peace talks

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan in New York on Monday, marking the first direct talks
between the two sides since deadly border clashes this month, the State Department said.
Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to a ceasefire last week, ending two days of violence linked to a decades-old dispute between the former Soviet states over the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.
The fighting, which each side blamed on the other, left more than 170 soldiers dead and threatened to drag Turkey, Azerbaijan’s key backer, and Armenia ally Russia into a wider conflict at a time of already high geopolitical tensions.