Armenia has appealed to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) with a request to convene an emergency meeting regarding the "deterioration of the humanitarian situation as a result of the total blockade inflicted upon the civilian population" of the Nagorno-Karabakh region, the Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Saturday.

Baku and Yerevan have fought two wars over the mountainous enclave and the signature of a peace treaty remains a distant prospect.

Talks under the mediation of the European Union, United States, and separately Russia have brought about little progress.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in July told AFP a new war with Azerbaijan was "very likely," a remark made after tensions escalated earlier that month when Azerbaijan temporarily shut the Lachin corridor, the sole road linking Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia.

The closure sparked concerns over a humanitarian crisis in the region, which experiences shortages of food, medicines, and power supplies.

Pashinyan has repeated his accusation that Azerbaijan was still blocking the transit of food and medicines to Karabakh via the Lachin corridor, thereby causing a humanitarian crisis.

Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev has denied that Azeri forces were blocking freedom of movement, saying more than 2,000 Karabakh residents had moved "to Armenia and back" since Azerbaijan established a border checkpoint at the entrance to the corridor in April.

During Western-mediated talks in May, Yerevan agreed to recognize Nagorno-Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan, but demanded international mechanisms for protecting the rights and security of the region's ethnic-Armenian population.

Baku insists such guarantees must be provided at the national level, rejecting any international format.

(With input from AFP, Reuters)

(Cover: Trucks with humanitarian aid for Artsakh parked on a road toward the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh, July 28, 2023. /CFP)