On July 28, the US once again called for the immediate lifting of Azerbaijan’s blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh, as Armenian trucks carrying essential food supplies for the residents of Karabakh encountered a deadlock at the entrance to the Lachin corridor for the third consecutive day.

On Wednesday, the Armenian government dispatched an aid convoy to address the acute food shortages in Karabakh. However, Azerbaijan, which intensified the blockade on June 15, labeled the action a “provocation” and prevented 19 trucks carrying approximately 400 tons of essential food items from passing through an Azerbaijani checkpoint. The situation has further exacerbated the humanitarian crisis in the region. 

John Allelo, the acting deputy chief of mission at the US Embassy in Armenia, accompanied foreign diplomats based in Yerevan on a visit to a nearby Armenian border area. Their purpose was to assess the extended queue of trucks waiting for authorization to proceed to Stepanakert.

“We reiterate [Secretary of State Antony] Blinken’s call for an immediate reopening of the corridor to commercial and private traffic,” the US Embassy in Armenia wrote.

The European Union echoed its call for Azerbaijan to reopen the Lachin corridor earlier. On Wednesday, the EU expressed deep concern about the escalating humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh.

“The European Union is deeply concerned about the serious humanitarian situation affecting the local population in the former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast. The movement through the Lachin corridor remains obstructed for more than seven months, despite Orders by the International Court of Justice to reopen it,” the EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said in a statement.

Read also: Azerbaijan Fires Back at EU, France, and Armenian Officials Over Karabakh Humanitarian Crisis