WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump will convene a peace summit at the White House on Friday with the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan that is meant to help end decades of conflict and reopen key transportation routes while allowing the U.S. to seize on Russia’s declining influence in the region.

Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a U.S.-brokered peace agreement on Friday during a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump that would boost bilateral economic ties after decades of conflict. The deal between the South Caucasus rivals - assuming it holds - would be a significant accomplishment for the Trump administration that is sure to rattle Moscow,

President Donald Trump claims, without a shred of evidence, that the government’s premiere economic data operation nefariously engineered negative statistics “for political purposes.”