The State Department has denied a Politico report that Secretary of State Antony Blinken told U.S. lawmakers last week that Azerbaijan will invade Armenia in the coming weeks.
Politico reported Friday that the State Department is tracking the possibility that Azerbaijan could soon invade southern Armenia in the coming weeks, Secretary of Antony Blinken warned a group of lawmakers during a telephone call on October 3. Politico cited two people familiar with the conversation.
In a written statement to Armenpress, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller claimed that the reporting in the article was “inaccurate and in no way reflects what Secretary Blinken said to lawmakers.”
“The United States strongly supports Armenia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. We have stressed that any infringement of that sovereignty and territorial integrity would bring serious consequences,” Miller said.
“Four people told me that Secretary Blinken had an October 3 call with a group of lawmakers, and two of those four said that Blinken said State was tracking the possibility that Azerbaijan would invade in the coming weeks,” Bazail-Eimil, one of the Politico reporters said in post on X reacting to Miller’s statement to Armenpress. “Whether that assessment has changed is another story.”
“State [Dept.] declined to comment on the call. They provided no readout of the details of the conversation,” Bazail-Eimil added on X. “I leave open the possibility that obviously, details and nuance might be missing. That’s why we tried to be careful, with very thought-out phrasing around the details we knew.”
“But I firmly stand by what my sources said about the substance of Blinken’s comments in that call,” Bazail-Eimil emphasized.
Gavin, the other Politico reporter said on a post on X that he was “unable to get a copy of the statement reportedly issued by State and requests for clarification and confirmation have gone unanswered.”
Since Blinken’s Oct. 3 briefing however, Rep. Frank Pallone, a New Jersey Democrat and the chair of the Armenian Congressional Caucus and one of the lawmakers who reportedly participated in the call warned of an Azerbaijani attack on Armenia.
“Aliyev is moving forward with his objective to take Southern Armenia,” Pallone said in a post on X on Wednesday, arguing that “his regime is emboldened after facing little consequences” for invading Nagorno-Karabakh.
Rep. Brad Sherman, a member of the Congressional Armenian Caucus, shared the Politico article on his page on the X platform.
America must airlift appropriate weapons to #Armenia now. @ANCA_DC @ARAMAC_DC @usembarmenia https://t.co/A5naJB9TPc
— Congressman Brad Sherman (@BradSherman) October 14, 2023