The US Congressmen are trying to ramp down the tension in the Karabakh conflict zone, according to U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce.
He expressed confidence that it is necessary to deploy sensors on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and along the line of contact of the Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijani troops and to withdraw the snipers in order to ensure peace and stop the violence. Ed Royce thinks that the implementation of these conditions will stabilize the situation.
To note, last week the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee held a private discussion on the Karabakh conflict with participation of James Warlick, US Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group. On December 16, the US State Department has officially welcomed the proposals by U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R- CA), Ranking Democrat Eliot Engel (D-NY) and more than 80 of their House colleagues to check Azerbaijan's escalating aggression. In the State Department response to the Royce-Engel letter, Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs Julia Frifield explained: "The United States supports proposals to withdraw snipers, expand OSCE's role via an OSCE investigation mechanism and deploy sensors along the line of contact and the Armenia-Azerbaijan international border. [...] Without a mechanism to verify ceasefire allegations, or sensors to pinpoint the location of gunfire, it is difficult for the Co-chairs to make specific accusations against one side's use of force." At the December 9th Capitol Hill celebration of Karabakh freedom, Chairman Royce condemned Azerbaijan's attacks and urged concrete international action to ramp down regional violence.