NAM can play positive role in Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolving
By Sara Rajabova
Iran's Ambassador to Azerbaijan, Mohsen Pak Ayeen has said the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) can play positive role in resolving Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
"I believe that with using Iran's political power in the region and taking advantage of its chairmanship at the NAM, it is possible to peacefully resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict," Pak Ayeen said in an interview with the Iranian Fars news agency.
The Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict emerged in 1988 after Armenia's territorial claims against Azerbaijan.
For over two decades, Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in the conflict, which impedes the development of the region, as Armenia continues its policy of aggression.
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.
Pak Ayeen also stressed that over the past 20 years the OSCE Minsk Group has shown that is not interested in this conflict's settlement.
Peace talks, mediated by Russia, France and the U.S. through the OSCE Minsk Group, are underway on the basis of a peace outline proposed by the Minsk Group co-chairs and dubbed the Madrid Principles. The negotiations have been largely fruitless so far.
Pak Ayeen said by means of drawing up a road map and a larger plan, reflecting disagreements and conflict conditions, it is possible to reach an agreement between the parties and to settle the conflict.
Iran has repeatedly said it is ready to act as a mediator in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict's settlement, if the parties want.
The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) is an international organization bringing together 120 countries on the principles of non-participation in military blocs.
The NAM was officially founded by 25 states at the Belgrade Conference in September 1961.
The movement's establishment was preceded by the Bandung Conference (Indonesia) in 1955 and tripartite consultations among the presidents of Yugoslavia, Egypt and India in 1956.