During a U.S. State Department briefing on March 25, Principal Deputy Spokesperson Jalina Porter fielded a question from Alex Raufoglu, a Washington DC based journalist, researcher, and press freedom advocate who focuses on Eurasia.

Here’s the exchange:

Raufoglu:   My question is about Azerbaijan and Armenia. Yesterday the State Department urged both sides to use direct communication channels to immediately de-escalate, something that – there’s a plausible on the Azerbaijani side, and there’s a lack of information about what exactly is going on. I was wondering if this – there was another tweet from the State Department, actually, that there was a phone call between the Assistant Secretary Donfried and the foreign ministers. If you have anything further on that call, any readout.

What is the state of U.S. mediation efforts at this point? Is the Minsk Group still around? And given what Russia has been doing in the region, do you still consider Russia a partner on peacemaking in the region? Thank you so much again.

Porter: Thanks, Alex. I’ll start off by saying that we are closely monitoring the situation along the line of contact established between – established following the November 2020 ceasefire. The United States is deeply concerned about Azerbaijan troop movements. Troop movements and other escalatory measures are irresponsible and unnecessarily provocative.

And to your question on the phone call between our Assistant Secretary Karen Donfried, I can confirm that our assistant secretary did speak with both the Armenian and – Armenian foreign minister and the Azerbaijani foreign minister on March 24th, and she just reiterated what Secretary Blinken told the Prime Minister Pashinyan as well as President Aliyev on March 21st and 22nd, which was calling both sides to show restraint and intensify diplomatic engagement to find comprehensive solutions to all of the outstanding issues. Armenia and Azerbaijan just need to use direct communication channels to immediately de-escalate.

On your second question, the United States, as a co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, remains deeply committed to working with the sides to achieve a long-term political settlement of the conflict.