The United States and the UN welcomed on Thursday a ceasefire announced between Armenia and Azerbaijan after two days of violence linked to a decades-old dispute between the former Soviet states over the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.
The fighting, which each side blamed on the other, left more than 170 soldiers dead and threatened to drag Turkey, Azerbaijan's key backer, and Armenia ally Russia into a wider conflict at a time of already high geopolitical tensions.
A senior U.S. State Department official said on Thursday evening that the ceasefire "appears to be holding." A monitoring mission from the Moscow-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation arrived in Yerevan on Thursday and held talks with defense officials, Tass news agency said. Russia and Armenia are both members but Azerbaijan is not.
"We do not confirm or deny international travel in advance due to longstanding security protocols," Pelosi's office said. The State Department official said: "We do not see any indication that Russian efforts contributed in a positive way towards securing the most recent ceasefire of this week."