France will present the confrontations between Armenia and Azerbaijan that led to the deaths of at least 49 Armenian soldiers to the UN Security Council, the Elysée announced on Tuesday.
"France will present the situation to the UN Security Council, which it currently chairs," the Elysée said after a telephone conversation between French President Emmanuel Macron and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
The Azerbaijani presidency declared that "the Armenian leadership bears full responsibility for the escalation on the border."
The Armenian Prime Minister announced the continuation of hostilities on the border with Azerbaijan on Tuesday morning but at a slower pace. He pointed out that 49 soldiers were killed during the battles.
Earlier, local media reported that an agreement was reached between Armenia and Azerbaijan on a ceasefire after violent clashes took place at dawn on Tuesday at the two countries' borders, during which heavy weapons were used.
Yerevan had announced that clashes were taking place on Tuesday on the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan, stressing that Baku forces, backed by artillery and drones, were seeking to "advance" inside the Armenian territory.
In a statement, the Armenian Defense Ministry said that "battles" are taking place at several points on the border, and "the enemy is constantly trying to advance." "Azerbaijani forces continue to use artillery, mortars, drones and high-caliber rifles," it added.
Armenia's Prime Minister Pashinyan held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, his French counterpart Macron and US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, asking them to respond to Azerbaijan's "aggression", Yerevan announced on Tuesday.
In the separate talks, Pashinyan said he hoped for an "appropriate response from the international community". At the same time, clashes continued on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border, according to an Armenian government statement.
Armenia and Azerbaijan announced earlier that large-scale border clashes took place between their forces at dawn on Tuesday, resulting in the killing of Azerbaijani soldiers, whose number was not specified, in the latest escalation of violence between the two countries.
On the other hand, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry accused the Armenian forces of carrying out "large-scale acts of sabotage" near the border provinces of Dasheksan, Kalpajar and Lachin, noting that its army positions "were bombed, especially with mortars."
The statement added that the Armenian bombing resulted in "losses among the (Azerbaijani) soldiers" without specifying their number.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken expressed his concern over the clashes, calling on the two countries to stop them immediately.
Since the end of the second war between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed Karabakh enclave in the fall of 2020, the two countries have repeatedly been bordering on border clashes. Last week, Armenia accused Azerbaijan of killing one of its soldiers in an exchange of fire on the border between the two countries.
These acts of violence threaten to reignite the conflict in the Karabakh region, despite the presence of Russian forces charged with supervising the ceasefire in force between Armenia and Azerbaijan since the end of the second war between them.
After a first war that killed 30,000 people in the early 1990s, Armenia and Azerbaijan clashed in the fall of 2020 over Karabakh. This mountainous region was separated from Azerbaijan with the support of Yerevan.