Zhoghovurd: Trump, administration officials 'increasingly focused' on presidential polls

The upcoming presidential elections in the United States are expected to be under the increasing spotlight of President Donald Trump and the administration on the whole in the coming couple of weeks, according to John Herbst, a former US ambassador to Uzbekistan.

In recent comments to the paper, the diplomat said he would be happy indeed to see the United States' more active role amid the ongoing war Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) to  influence the processes in a more positive way.

He added that both the recent summit, held on the level of foreign ministers to agree on a humanitarian ceasefire, and the failure to abide by the arrangements reached where absolutely predictable and expected.

"The real question is whether both [the Armenian and Azerbaijani] leaders are really eager to end this war and return home and whether the ceasefire agreement will be respected. Moscow is obviously trying in a way to reaffirm and bring to life the agreement reached in the Russian capital 10 days ago.

"But I suspect that the two leaders are not quit willing to go to that meeting," he said.

The remark came after Azerbaijan's failure to respect the third ceasefire accord reached since the in eruption in the hostilities in the past couple weeks. "After yet another act of sabotage, it now remains to be seen what outcome of the new Armenian-Azerbaijani ministerial summit - scheduled to take place in Geneva on October 29 - will practically produce," says the paper.