Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

The long-standing Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was discussed in the United States.

Ed Royce, the chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives committee on foreign affairs and James Warlick, the U.S. co-chair of OSCE Minsk Group discussed the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement, Warlick tweeted on January 7.

Warlick thanked the committee and its chair Royce for hosting him to discuss the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement. “We agreed to work for a settlement,” he said.

A while ago, Warlick reminded about the work directed to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

“We need to intensify work towards a negotiated settlement in 2016. The parties say they are willing. If not now, when”, Warlick tweeted.

The OSCE Minsk Group, an international framework established to settle the long-standing Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, has voiced determination to continue work on a new meeting of the Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents.

Though the Bern meeting of the two presidents last December hasn’t yielded the desirable results, some officials believe that holding of such a meeting was itself a positive sign for the resolution of the conflict, a source of major instability in the South Caucasus region.

Armenia captured Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions from Azerbaijan in a war that followed the Soviet breakup in 1991. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and nearly 1 million were displaced as a result of the war.

The peace talks have been largely fruitless so far despite the efforts of the co-chair countries over 20 years.

The sides to the conflict currently hold talks based on the renewed Madrid principles, which envisage return of occupied territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijani control, ensure the right of all internally displaced persons and refugees to return to their former places of residence, future determination of the final legal status of Nagorno-Karabakh and etc.

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Sara Rajabova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @SaraRajabova

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