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Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has said that Armenian attempts to delay or hinder talks on Karabakh increase the likelihood of a military solution, reports News.Az.
He made the remarks at the opening ceremony of Azerbaijan’s State Border Service Academy today, Interfax-Azerbaijan reported, quoting state-run AzTV.
The president said that Baku’s position in the negotiating process on the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh was strengthening, but that if the talks were hindered, the situation would change and the settlement of the problem by force would be put on the agenda.
Talks to resolve the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan appear to be making little progress.
The OSCE mediators on the conflict gave a downbeat assessment of the last round of talks between the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers on July 17. The mediators said that neither side had made sufficient effort to overcome their differences.
It is not the first time that the Azerbaijani president has said that the conflict could be settled by force. He told a government meeting on 13 July that he would prefer a peaceful resolution of the conflict, but that Azerbaijan should always be ready for a military solution too. He has made similar remarks on other occasions as well.