The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) on Monday urged Armenia and Azerbaijan to stop hostilities amid a deteriorating situation in the disputed mountainous region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

"All of us in the CIS, friends and partners of Azerbaijan and Armenia, sincerely hope that both sides have the will and prudence to stop the bloodshed and find an opportunity of a speedy resumption of the peace dialogue for the benefit of peoples of both countries," Sergei Lebedev, chairman of the executive committee of the CIS, a regional union of former Soviet states, said in an online statement.

Heavy fighting broke out on Saturday between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, killing three Azerbaijani soldiers. Each side blamed the other for the escalation, the worst since 1994.

The aggravation of the situation and deadly clashes in the region, Lebedev said, have caused deep pain and great concern in all CIS countries.

"Young Azerbaijanis and Armenians are dying, thousands of people are suffering, enormous damage is being caused to both sides, and an atmosphere of enmity and hatred is being whipped up," he said. "All this greatly undermines the basis for a return to peace."

He noted that a number of CIS heads of state and foreign ministers have already appealed to Baku and Yerevan to take immediate steps to cease hostilities and resume the search for a peaceful solution to the conflict.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have been locked in a bitter dispute over the mountainous region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh first broke out in 1988, when the region claimed independence from Azerbaijan to join Armenia.

Source: XINHUA