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Embassy: US committed to help achieve peaceful resolution of Karabakh conflict

21 January 2020 13:27 (UTC+04:00)
Embassy: US committed to help achieve peaceful resolution of Karabakh conflict

By Trend

The United States, as a co-chair country of the OSCE Minsk Group, remains strongly committed to helping the sides achieve a peaceful resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, a representative of the US Embassy in Azerbaijan told Trend.

“We reiterate, as the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs have done many times, that a fair and lasting settlement must be based, in particular, upon the principles of the Helsinki Final Act of non-use of force or threat of force, territorial integrity, and the equal rights and self-determination of peoples,” said the representative.

The embassy representative noted that the United States fully endorses the joint statement of the Heads of Delegation of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair countries at the Bratislava OSCE Ministerial Council meeting last December, which called for additional concrete humanitarian and security measures to foster an atmosphere conducive to peace and for the sides to engage in good faith substantive negotiations, and which stressed that the status quo is unacceptable and there can be no military solution to the conflict.

“In that connection, the United States welcomed the intention of the Armenian and Azerbaijani Foreign Ministers to meet again in early 2020 under Co-Chair auspices. The OSCE Minsk Group format remains the indispensable focal point for efforts to reach a sustainable settlement,” added the representative.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding regions.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno Karabakh and the surrounding regions.

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