Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

Azerbaijan and the OSCE Minsk Group have discussed settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Defense Minister Zakir Hasanov met co-chairs Igor Popov of the Russian Federation, James Warlick of the U.S., Jacques Faure of France and new French co-chair Pierre Andrieux, as well as Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk, the defense ministry reported.

The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs shared their views of the Nagorno-Karabakh peace talks and current situation on the troops` contact line.

Hasanov highlighted the regional situation, and problems of refugees and IDPs. He regretted over the fact that the mediation efforts of international organizations had not yielded any results so far.

For over two decades, Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in conflict which emerged over Armenia's territorial claims against its South Caucasus neighbor.

Since a war in the early 1990s, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions. A fragile ceasefire has been in place since 1994, but long-standing efforts by US, Russian and French mediators have been largely fruitless so far.

Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council's four resolutions on its pullout from the neighboring country's territories.