Maria Zakharova Claims OSCE Minsk Group Format is Sent Into the Ash Heap of History

MOSCOW — Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova accused the West of derailing the efforts in the direction of an Armenian-Azerbaijani settlement.

Zakharova was reacting to the US State Department’s statement which in turn accused Russia of disrupting the Armenian-Azerbaijani settlement efforts as part of the OSCE Minsk Group.

“If anyone has derailed the Armenian-Azerbaijani settlement efforts then it’s they themselves, the Western countries, led by the United States. The OSCE Minsk Group format was sent into the ash heap of history after the US and French co-chairs stopped cooperating with their Russian counterpart in February of 2022 under a made-up pretext,” Zakharova said, adding that no explanation has been issued since.

“Taking this into consideration, we are focused on providing support to Yerevan and Baku as part of trilateral formats, based on the respective agreements on the highest level, which we have talked about on many occasions,” the foreign ministry spokesperson said.

Russia is ready to host a meeting of the foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan, Zakharova said the press briefing today.

She said that at meetings with the special representative of the Russian Foreign Minister Igor Khovayev, representatives of Armenia and Azerbaijan confirmed their interest in Russia’s mediation in the negotiations on a peace treaty.

“Both the Armenian and Azerbaijani sides have confirmed their interest in our country’s mediation,” she said, commenting on the trip of Igor Khovayev, Special Representative of the Russian Foreign Minister for promoting the normalization of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations, to Yerevan and Baku.