Azernews.Az

The OSCE Minsk Group (MG) brokering settlement to the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh is not willing to resolve the dispute, the Iranian ambassador in Baku has said.
Mahammad Bagir Bahrami told the press Monday that the MG has accomplished no results over its 17-year-long activity.
"They don’t even want to achieve these results, they are defending their own interests," the ambassador said, emphasizing that the problems facing the turbulent region should be solved by the regional states proper.
According to him, the Garabagh conflict is a problem dividing and weakening the region.
"Iran wants this conflict to be settled peacefully and in favor of Azerbaijan. We have always condemned occupation.
"No invader can stay in the land it occupies forever. History says so," Bahrami said.
Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a lengthy war that ended with the signing of a cease-fire in 1994, but Armenia continues to occupy Upper Garabagh and seven other Azerbaijani districts in defiance of international law. The Minsk Group, co-chaired by the United States, Russia and France, is brokering peace talks.
Iran previously sought to assume the role of a mediator in Garabagh settlement, but the initiative was unsuccessful. In 1992, a day after a peace accord was signed in Tehran, Armenian armed forces launched an offensive and subsequently invaded the ancient Azerbaijani town of Shusha, the biggest residential area in Upper Garabagh.*