YEREVAN, BAKU AGREE ON CEASEFIRE IN KARABAKH

Armenia and Azerbaijan have agreed on concluding a ceasefire starting noon on October 10, following hours of negotiations that began in Moscow on Friday, Interfax reported.

The parties have agreed on the following steps:

1. They declare a ceasefire for humanitarian reasons starting at noon on October 10, 2020 to exchange prisoners and other persons held, as well as the bodies of those deceased, via the International Committee of the Red Cross's mediation and in keeping with its criteria;

2. Particular parameters of a ceasefire are to be agreed upon later;

3. The Republic of Azerbaijan and the Republic of Armenia, via the OSCE Minsk Group's mediation and based on the fundamental settlement principles, shall begin substantive negotiations to achieve the soonest possible peaceful settlement;

4. The parties confirm the inalterability of the format of the negotiating process.

The points of the agreement were read out by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov after trilateral consultations.

The negotiations between the Armenian, Azerbaijani, and Russian foreign ministers began in Moscow on Friday and concluded in the early hours of Saturday, having lasted for more than ten hours.

Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov had arrived in Moscow on Friday at Russian President Vladimir Putin's invitation.

The Kremlin press service said on Friday the consultations were aimed at discussing an exchange of prisoners and the bodies of those killed during the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said on the morning of September 27 it was launching a military operation along the entire line of contact in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone. It said it was launching "a counteroffensive operation" in response to provocative actions by Armenian forces.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said Azerbaijan attacked the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh republic (NKR).