NATO says not planning peacekeeping mission in Karabakh conflict zone
BAKU – NATO Deputy Assistant Secretary General Jamie Shea has said the alliance does not aim to replace the OSCE Minsk Group brokering settlement to the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno Karabakh and is not ready to consider its "hypothetical" peacekeeping mission in the conflict zone.
Shea was quoted by Armenian Mediamax news agency as saying in a television conference that a number of components must be in place to discuss NATO’s involvement in peacekeeping operations in the conflict zone. These include relevant appeals from the conflict parties, an international mandate authorizing the peacekeeping mission and consent of NATO member states to join the mission.
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov recently said agreement has been reached on peacekeeping forces to be deployed in Nagorno Karabakh, an Azerbaijani region that has been occupied by Armenian troops since a war in the early 1990s. According to the agreement, the peacekeepers will not be from the countries co-chairing the Minsk Group - the United States, Russia and France – or regional states, Mammadyarov said but he did not give details.
About 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory has been under the occupation of the Armenian armed forces since a ceasefire was signed in 1994.
Here we are to serve you with news right now. It does not cost much, but worth your attention.
Choose to support open, independent, quality journalism and subscribe on a monthly basis.
By subscribing to our online newspaper, you can have full digital access to all news, analysis, and much more.
You can also follow AzerNEWS on Twitter @AzerNewsAz or Facebook @AzerNewsNewspaper
Thank you!