US looking forward to Azerbaijan and Armenia signing peace treaty, diplomat says

PHOTO CAPTION: Illustrative photo — An Azerbaijani soldier observes the city of Cebrayil, where Azerbaijani forces regained control during the fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh, October 16, 2020. (Reuters)

BAKU (Reuters) -     U.S. President Donald Trump is looking forward to Azerbaijan and Armenia signing a long-awaited peace treaty, Eric Jacobs, a senior adviser of the State Bureau of Energy Resources of the U.S. Department of State, said on Friday. 

Speaking at an energy event in Baku, Jacobs said the peace treaty would usher in "a new era of security and prosperity" for the South Caucasus region.

Armenia and Azerbaijan said last month that they had agreed the text of a peace agreement to end almost four decades of conflict between the two countries over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Fighting over Karabakh, which is part of mostly Muslim Azerbaijan but had until 2023 a heavily Armenian Christian population, broke out in the late 1980s, when both countries were part of the collapsing Soviet Union.

The territory gained de facto independence from Azerbaijan with Armenian support through a series of wars, but was ultimately retaken by Azerbaijan in September 2023, in a military offensive that prompted almost all of its 100,000 ethnic Armenians to flee.

Since then, the two countries have both said they want a peace deal, but talks have been fitful and progress slow until a sudden breakthrough last month.

The peace deal is still not expected to be signed quickly though as Azerbaijan is demanding that Armenia first change its constitution to remove what Baku says are references to Karabakh independence.

Since the draft deal was agreed, both Armenia and Azerbaijan have also accused each other of firing on positions along the two countries' closed and heavily militarised border. No casualties have been reported in the incidents.

 (Reporting by Nailia Bagirova, Writing by Felix Light; Editing by Andrew Osborn)