Azerbaijan denies deal reached to reopen Karabakh-Armenia road

By Felix Light and Nailia Bagirova

TBILISI (Reuters) – Hikmet Hajiev, a foreign policy advisor to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, on Saturday denied that Baku had reached a deal with the breakaway province of Karabakh to simultaneously reopen roads to Azerbaijan and Armenia.

In a message posted on the platform X, formerly known as Twitter, Hajiev said that Baku had offered to simultaneously reopen the roads but that what he called the “illegal regime” in Karabakh had refused.

He said that the road to Azerbaijan would open for aid shipments, a key demand of Baku’s.

Earlier, Hajiev had confirmed to Reuters Armenian media reports that the Karabakh authorities had agreed to allow aid shipments from Azerbaijan to enter the territory in return for reopening the road to Armenia, which Baku has blockaded since December.

(Reporting by Felix Light in Tbilisi and Nailia Bagirova; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)