Dispatched by Clinton, US Envoy in Armenia on Unexpected Visit
49_3/25/2009_1
Published: Wednesday March 25, 2009
YEREVAN (RFE/RL)–A senior U.S. official paid on Wednesday a brief and
apparently unexpected visit to Yerevan which the Armenian Foreign
Ministry said focused on international efforts to resolve the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Bryza, who is also
Washington’s chief Karabakh negotiator, met with President Serzh
Sarkisian and Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian and made no public
statements afterwards. Sarkisian’s office also did not immediately
report any details of the talks.
According to the Armenian Foreign Ministry, Bryza passed on to
Nalbandian a message from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
relating to U.S.-Armenian relations, regional security and the ongoing
dialogue between Armenia and Turkey. A ministry statement said Clinton
`warmly recalled’ her March 17 phone conversation with Sarkisian that
also touched on these subjects.
`In the message, Secretary of State Clinton expressed her readiness to
provide utmost support to the process of a peaceful settlement of the
Karabakh conflict,’ said the statement. `During the meeting Eduard
Nalbandian and Matthew Bryza discussed issues pertaining to the
Artsakh (Karabakh) negotiating process,’ it added without elaborating.
Bryza already visited Yerevan as well as Baku and Stepanakert early
this month together with the two other co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk
Group, Yuri Merzlyakov of Russia and Bernard Fassier of France. The
three mediators expressed hope that the presidents of Armenia and
Azerbaijan will meet again soon and make further progress towards the
signing of a framework Karabakh peace accord. The meeting could take
place on the sidelines of a European Union summit in Prague scheduled
for May 7.