Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

The United States is very interested in the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which threatens the stability of the region, US Secretary of State John Kerry said on June 3 after meeting with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov during his official visit to the U.S.

"As a co-chair of the Minsk Group, we have a serious interest in helping Azerbaijan and Armenia to be able to find a way forward. The last thing we want is a return to war and to conflict," Kerry said.

"I believe there is a path forward, and we will continue to work quietly and patiently in an effort to try to encourage the parties to be able to take either confidence-building measures that may get to further down the road or to find a way towards a settlement with respect to this issue. So we have a big interest in that," he said.

Minister Mammadyarov, for his part, said that the status quo in the conflict must change.

First, Mammadyarov said, the Armenian armed forces must withdraw from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan with a view to reach progress in peace talks.

According to him, Azerbaijan believes that together with the U.S. all the problems, in particular, the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, will be solved.

On June 4, the US Secretary of State also discussed the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian in the U.S.

Commenting on the meeting results, Kerry said that the U.S. wants to see the conflict resolved one day.

According to Kerry, the regional states should assist in the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

"It is critical that all the parties - when I say all the parties, I mean, obviously, the Azerbaijanis, but also Turkey, Russia, Iran, others - try to find a way to help break the impasse that has kept this struggle alive and always potentially dangerous," Kerry said.

Nalbandian, in turn, publicly confirmed the need to address the conflict on the basis of the principle of territorial integrity.

"We are sharing a vision - same vision - that it is important to continue efforts to find exclusively peaceful solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict based on the principles and norms of international law, particularly non-use of force, excessive force, self-determination and territorial integrity," he said.

Meanwhile, the parties to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict agreed on the need to hold a meeting at the highest level, the office of the US co-chair of the mediating OSCE Minsk Group, Ian Kelly, told Trend news agency on June 5.

"The sides agree on the need for a meeting at the highest level, and the co-chairs will continue working with the foreign ministers to prepare for such a meeting," he said.

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.

Russia, France and the U.S. have long been working to broker a solution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict through the Minsk Group, but their efforts have been largely fruitless so far.

Peace talks 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.