At the traditional briefing on 27 September, Matthew Miller, the press secretary of the US State Department, spoke about recent events in the Karabakh region.

Miller said that Samantha Power, the head of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and Yuri Kim, the Acting Assistant Secretary of State, emphasised several points during their visit to Azerbaijan yesterday. "What the Secretary of State emphasised in his conversation with President Aliyev yesterday, and what I reiterated from this position, is that we want to see, first, that the ceasefire is maintained, and second, that humanitarian needs are met. That means keeping the Lachin Corridor open, an international monitoring mission to ensure that humanitarian aid gets in and that humanitarian needs are met," he said.

The spokesman said the United States welcomed the Azerbaijani government's position that it would be open to an international monitoring mission. "That's something that the Secretary of State is trying to get the President to do, and we're glad to see that he's on board with that. In the coming days, we will work with our allies and partners to define exactly what this mission will look like. However, the end result we want to see is the return of the parties to the negotiating table where they can finally achieve a decent, lasting peace," the spokesman said.

On the status of the peace talks, Miller said it was up to the two sides, who have serious differences of opinion. "We continue the negotiations. The State Secretary conducts direct negotiations with the President of Azerbaijan and the Prime Minister of Armenia. A number of our officials have visited the region - not just last week or since the start of hostilities, but months and months ago. We've done our best to continue the diplomacy, but at the end of the day you have to remember that it's the two sides that are directly at odds. We can do our best to push them forward, but ultimately they have to agree to talk and ultimately agree to a decision. We will do it, we will continue to play our role to facilitate that," the spokesman said.

On Russia's role in the region in the current situation, the spokesman said that Russia had not played a productive role over the past week. "I don't think Russia has played a productive role here in the last week. We've seen them from time to time - there have been times when they've helped with the negotiations and that's something we welcome, but certainly in the last week their role has not been productive in this situation," Miller noted.