US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said at a briefing on 23 October that the United States welcomes any good-faith action that promotes peace in the South Caucasus.
He commented on the 3+3 meeting of the foreign ministers of Iran, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Russia and Armenia in Tehran on Monday. He claimed:
“With respect to the Armenia-Azerbaijan question of it, we welcome any good faith engagements that contribute to peace and stability for the people of the South Caucasus regardless of where those talks happen or who is hosting them.”
In his speech, he repeated unsubstantiated claims about relations between Iran and Russia and said:
“Regarding Iran and Russia, we have not found these countries to be reliable partners.”
At the meeting in Tehran, the ministers discussed co-operation in the fields of economy, energy, politics, transit and security. The main objective of the 3+3 meeting was to solve regional problems without the participation of countries outside the region, with an emphasis on the participation of regional states. It also served as a platform for peace talks between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
The first meeting in the “3+3” format took place last year in Moscow with the participation of deputy foreign ministers.
The situation in the South Caucasus has become tumultuous in the past recent months after a series of political developments in the Nagorno-Karabakh region. The Armenian-backed government of the Nagorno-Karabakh region was forced to capitulate at the end of September due to an Azerbaijani military operation. The decision prompted a mass exodus of ethnic Armenians.
