Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

The appointment of a permanent co-chair to the OSCE Minsk Group by the United States is in focus of the government, US Ambassador to Azerbaijan Richard Morningstar told reporters on Tuesday.

US Secretary of State John Kerry is very interested in the situation with the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, Morningstar said, expressing hope for progress to be made on this issue.

Earlier, in February, U.S. State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said that the State Department has not yet decided on the candidacy of the US co-chair to the OSCE Minsk Group -- which is brokering settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Ian Kelly currently acts as temporary representative of the United States to the Minsk Group.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict emerged in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Since a lengthy war in the early 1990s that displaced over one million Azerbaijanis, Armenian armed forces have occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions.

The UN Security Council has adopted four resolutions on Armenia's withdrawal from the Azerbaijani territory, but Armenia has not followed them to this day.

Peace negotiations are underway on the basis of a peace outline proposed by the Minsk Group co-chairs and dubbed the Madrid Principles, also known as Basic Principles. The document envisions a return of the territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijani control; determining the final legal status of Nagorno-Karabakh; a corridor linking Armenia to the region; and the right of all internally displaced persons to return home.