Azernews.Az

By Gunay Camal

The U.S. co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, James Warlick, has revealed that the MG, established to broker a peace deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, does not plan to meet with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov in Brussels.

“Of course, my Russian and French counterparts and me are in regular touch with the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia to urge restraint and the need to enter into negotiations on a comprehensive settlement,” Warlick told APA on May 10, adding that this time they do not plan to meet with Mammadyarov.

Earlier, Mammadyarov told reporters that a meeting with the co-chairs can take place on the sidelines of an event which will be held in mid-May in one of the cities of Europe.

“We plan to meet with the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs in one of European cities, likely in Brussels, next month,” Mammadyarov said, adding that the exact date and time will be determined later.

Brussels will host a meeting of Eastern Partnership Foreign Ministers will take place in on May 23. Azerbaijan and Armenia are both party to the Eastern Partnership Program.

Last time Azerbaijan’s Mammadyarov met the OSCE MG in late 2015, as part of 70th Session of the UN General Assembly. The sides discussed the negotiations process to resolve the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict.

Armenia captured Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding districts 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.

Peace talks over the long-lasting Nagorno-Karabakh conflict that emerged over Armenia’s territorial claims against Azerbaijan are underway on the basis of a peace outline proposed by the Minsk Group co-chairs and dubbed the Madrid Principles. However, as Armenia continues to follow non-constructive position, the negotiations have been largely fruitless so far despite the efforts of the co-chair countries over 20 years.

Large-scale hostilities ended with a Russia-brokered ceasefire in 1994 but Armenia continued the occupation in defiance of four UN Security Council resolutions calling for immediate and unconditional withdrawal.