Philip Reeker, the US State Department adviser on negotiations in the Caucasus and co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, has insisted that he saw no reports of Azerbaijan’s use of phosphorus bombs during its attack on Artsakh in the 44-day war of 2020.
He made this statement in response to a corresponding question from Bob Menendez, chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
The senator asked whether Reeker had any information about the use of white phosphorus munitions by Azerbaijan’s armed forces, which had been widely covered. Reeker stated that he had seen no such reports. “There has been a lot of reporting about white phosphorus. Unfortunately, (that munition) was supplied by Ukraine,” Menendez said.
Asked whether the administration is taking steps to assess the footage of brutal killings and torture of Armenian servicemen by Azerbaijani forces, Reeker gave an evasive answer, saying he would need to “check.”
“You are looking the other way. Whatever interests we have with Azerbaijan, I am disappointed with the State Department for calling on both sides to show restraint. When there is an aggressor, we must condemn the aggressor. And one does not need to be very clever to understand who the aggressor is, who has the capacity to be the aggressor in this conflict… That is Azerbaijan,” Menendez declared.
