UNITED NATIONS, July 22. /TASS/. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has held talks over the phone with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, calling on them to de-escalate the conflict between both states, Spokesperson for the UN Secretary General Stephane Dujarric informed on Wednesday.

"The Secretary General had a phone call with President Aliyev of Azerbaijan and Prime Minister Pashinyan of Armenia," Dujarric informed. "In both telephone conversations, the Secretary General expressed his ongoing concern over the hostilities <…> reported along the Armenia-Azerbaijan international border, as well as the prevailing tensions."

"The Secretary General reiterated his call for immediate and full de-escalation, refraining from provocative rhetoric and a return to negotiations," the spokesman added.

Guterres has expressed support for the work of the OSCE Minsk Group tasked with organizing the talks on peaceful regulation of the conflict.

Tensions flared up on the Azerbaijani-Armenian border on July 12, when Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry said that Armenian army units had tried to attack Azerbaijan’s positions at the Tovuz section of the border with the use of artillery systems. For its part, Yerevan accused Azerbaijan of breaching the border. Baku said twelve servicemen of Azerbaijan’s army were killed since the clashes had begun. Armenia, in turn, reported that four servicemen were killed in the hostilities, while 10 servicemen were wounded. On July 17, both sides of the conflict reported that the situation on the border is relatively stable.

The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the highland region of Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed territory that had been part of Azerbaijan before the Soviet Union break-up, but primarily populated by ethnic Armenians, broke out in February 1988 after the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region announced its withdrawal from the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1992-1994, tensions boiled over and exploded into large-scale military action for control over the enclave and seven adjacent territories after Azerbaijan lost control of them. Talks on the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement have been ongoing since 1992 under the OSCE Minsk Group, led by its three co-chairs - Russia, France and the United States.