September 5, 2023

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QUESTION: Thank you. On the South Caucasus —

MR PATEL: Yeah.

QUESTION: — Armenia and Azerbaijan. Matt had a statement last week on the current state of play in the region and the current situation of the conflict. Has the situation been developing since the statement, or what is your observation? Is it worsening? And has there been any communication with the sides? I know that Armenian ambassador was in this building. Besides that, has there been any communication?

MR PATEL: So first, on the matters of communication, Alex, I will just say that this is something that we are going to remain deeply engaged on. I don’t have specific engagements to read out to you, but we are deeply concerned about the deteriorating humanitarian conditions in Nagorno-Karabakh resulting from the continued blockage of food, medicine, and other essential goods. The U.S. has worked continuously with the sides over the past several weeks to allow humanitarian assistance to reach the population of Nagorno-Karabakh, and we reiterate our call to immediately reopen the Lachin corridor to humanitarian, commercial, and passenger traffic as well.