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Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned a small group of lawmakers last week that his department is tracking the possibility that Azerbaijan could soon invade Armenia, POLITICO reported late on Friday, citing two people familiar with the conversation.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has previously called on Armenia to open a “corridor” along its southern border, linking mainland Azerbaijan to an exclave that borders Turkey and Iran. Aliyev has threatened to solve the issue “by force.”

In an Oct. 3 phone call, lawmakers pressed Blinken on possible measures against Aliyev in response to his country’s invasion of Nagorno-Karabakh in September, the people said, who were granted anonymity to discuss the sensitive call.

Blinken responded that the State Department was looking at avenues to hold Azerbaijan accountable and isn’t planning to renew a long-standing waiver that allows the U.S. to provide military assistance to Baku. He added that State saw a possibility that Azerbaijan would invade southern Armenia in the coming weeks.

"The U.S. believes that Azerbaijan may soon invade Armenia,” Varuzhan Geghamyan, an academic and expert on Armenian-Azerbaijani relations, wrote on Telegram on Saturday, adding the warning refers to Armenia’s southern Syunik Province.

“A mere glance at the map of the South Caucasus is enough to realize the vulnerability of Syunik and the high possibility of an attack by Azerbaijan and Turkey. Naturally, no international guarantees will work here. Only military force together with regional forces (Iran and Russia) opposing this attack can prevent such a scenario,” the expert stated.