Minsk Group Looking for Opportunity to Organize Another Sarkisian-Aliyev Meeting

YEREVAN (Arka) — The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs are looking for an opportunity to organize another meeting of the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the US co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group James Warlick told Russian RIA Novosti news agency.

Warlick said also that the peaceful resolution of the standoff in Yerevan between police and an armed group has caused a sense of relief, adding that the standoff and public debates on it only confirm the importance of the fact that the way to achieving a lasting peace is through the negotiating process.

According to him, no settlement option can be forcibly imposed on any of the parties. He said also the parties to the conflict are taking part in the negotiations with the support of high-ranking officials of the co-chairing countries working on the measures to reduce the risk of violence on the contact line.

He also said that the meetings of the presidents in Vienna and St. Petersburg were successful in terms of reducing violence along the line of contact, resumption of substantive negotiations and promotion of proposals to reduce the risk of violence.

During the May 16 meeting in Vienna, Austria, the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to work out safeguards against ceasefire violations around Nagorno-Karabakh and resume their search for a compromise peace deal to end the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

After the June 20 meeting in St. Petersburg, the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to increase the number of international observers in the Karabakh conflict zone and noted the achievement of mutual understanding on a number of issues that will create conditions for progress in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement process.