YEREVAN — Louis Bono, U.S. special envoy for Armenia-Azerbaijan peace talks, visited Yerevan on Thursday two weeks after a meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers held in Washington.
Bono met with Armen Grigorian, the secretary of Armenia’s Security Council. Grigorian’s office said they discussed “recent developments” in the peace process facilitated by the United States. It gave no other details.
The U.S. Embassy in Armenia similarly reported that Bono met senior Armenian officials to discuss ongoing efforts to end the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict. It did not say whether the envoy will also visit Baku.
“Now is the time to sign a peace agreement that will allow to realize the social and economic potential of the South Caucasus,” the embassy said in a statement to RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
The July 10 talks between the foreign ministers of the two South Caucasus states were hosted by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. They do not seem to have resulted in a breakthrough.
The U.S. State Department spokesman, Matthew Miller, said on July 15 that Washington is pressing both conflicting sides to “make some difficult choices and tough compromises” it believes are necessary for an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty. He did not elaborate.
