The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said it will not meet with the Armenian Foreign Minister on November 20 in Washington because of the "unilateral approach of the United States." The ministry said in a statement on Friday.


The statement said that US officials are unwelcome in Baku for the same reason.


Azerbaijan has objected to what it considers "unilateral and biased" comments made by US Assistant Secretary of State James O'Brien on Wednesday at the House Foreign Affairs Committee.


According to the statement, when O'Brien said that Azerbaijan's use of force in September prompted most of the population of more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians to flee their homes in Nagorno-Karabakh, he did not mention the "illegal deployment of more than 10,000 Armenian armed forces."


The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry also stated that Armenia has not responded to peace proposals for two months and expressed disagreement with Washington's continued support for Armenia, which in their eyes is "an aggressor and a source of destabilization in the region."


According to a transcript of O'Brien's speech published by the committee, he emphasized that relations with Baku cannot be "business as usual" and promised that the United States would not provide military assistance to Azerbaijan until progress is made in peace talks with Armenia. The conflict between the two countries has been going on for many years, especially with the Nagorno-Karabakh region involved.