AZERBAIJAN READY TO START WORK ON NAGORNO KARABAKH PEACE AGREEMENT – FM

ITAR-TASS, Russia
July 8, 2013 Monday 02:54 PM GMT+4

– The next meeting on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement of
the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs with foreign ministers of Azerbaijan
and Armenia will take place in July, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister
Elmar Mamedyarov told a news conference after the talks with OSCE
Chairman-in-Office, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Leonid Kozhara,
on Monday.

He said the date and format of the meeting are being finalized.

Mamedyarov did not rule out that international mediators will organize
a meeting between the Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers.

Mamedyarov expressed Azerbaijan’s readiness to start work on a
comprehensive agreement on peaceful conflict settlement on the basis of
principles proposed by international mediators and recently confirmed
by heads of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries – Russia, the
United States and France – in their joint statement at the G8 summit.

“Azerbaijan also adopted the updated Madrid Principles for the
conflict settlement and if Armenia also adopted them as that country’s
foreign minister affirms, we can start work on a comprehensive peace
agreement,” Mamedyarov said.

He said the parties can define a certain timeframe, for instance
twenty-four months, and make gradually necessary steps. “We need such
a plan of action,” he said.

Mamedyarov also called for intensifying the activities of the whole
OSCE Minsk Group (that includes 12 countries – Itar-Tass) and not
only of co-chairs.

He said meetings of the Minsk Group should be convened more often.

“I asked Ukraine as the country presiding over the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe for such meetings to be held in
Vienna more often,” Mamedyarov said.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress