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The U.S. Congress Helsinki Commission on Wednesday organized a briefing on “Averting all-out war in Nagorno-Karabakh: The Role of the U.S. and OSCE".

The panelists featured were former U.S. Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, Ambassador Carey Cavanaugh, Europe & Central Asia Program Director of the International Crisis Group, Magdalena Grono and former U.S. Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, Ambassador James Warlick.

During the briefing, Magdalena Grono reflected on the 2016 four-day April war, noting it came to show the conflict can break out at any moment.

She named the absence of trust between the sides as an obstacle to the NK conflict settlement.

Ambassador Carey Cavanaugh stressed the importance of implementing the already reached agreements to minimize the possibility of military operations, namely increasing the number of international observers in the line of contact and expanding their powers to investigate ceasefire violation incidents.

Mr. Cavanaugh also named the self-determination, territorial integrity and the non-use of force as the three key principles, meantime noting it is hard to reach a conflict settlement based on these three principles.

James Warlick, in his turn, noted the Armenian and Azerbaijani authorities need to take measures aimed at reducing the tensions and create a favorable atmosphere for the talks.