Nancy Pelosi visits Armenia amid conflict with Azerbaijan
“The Armenian side does not seem to be able to arrange a suitable military defense system to prevent the Azerbaijani army from advancing further into its territory,” she said. “A small incident can provoke a new war.”
Pashinyan said on Friday at a government meeting that Armenia had lost 135 soldiers in Azerbaijani attacks in recent days, adding that the death toll was expected to rise as more people were wounded. unable to cope with the wound. Azerbaijan announced on Tuesday that it had lost 50 people from its army and border guards in its first day.
Ms. Pelosi, the third highest-ranking official in the US government, has recently put herself at the center of some of the world’s hottest conflicts. In the May, she visited KyivThe capital of Ukraine, and met with President Volodymyr Zelensky, and in August, she traveled to Taiwanangered China.
Matthew Bryza, former US ambassador to Azerbaijan, said: “Speaker Pelosi appears to be trying to maneuver the diplomatic engine of the US Congress and intervene in a bilateral regional conflict, perhaps without close coordination with law enforcement, as she recently visited Taiwan.”
But she was only visiting one side of the conflict, he said. Ms. Pelosi described her visit as an effort to support the human rights and dignity of all, and, according to him, “reflects the opinion of the Armenian government that Azerbaijan has sparked the round of struggles. this latest.”
Zaur Shiriyev, South Caucasus analyst with the International Crisis Group in Baku, Azerbaijan, said US officials have worked hard to bring Azerbaijan and Armenia back to talks, but if Ms. Pelosi’s intervention upsets the balance, those efforts, “then US diplomatic efforts will not be viewed positively in Baku,” he said.