Epress.am News from Armenia
The conflicting parties in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict have recognized the format of the OSCE Minsk Group and the work of the co-chair countries (Russia, France and the US) as being an effective and competent tool in promoting settlement of the conflict, Russian foreign ministry representative Alexander Lukashevich told reporters in Baku.
With this statement, reports Baku-based news agency APA, Lukashevich basically presented the Kremlin’s opinion on Iranian parliamentary (Majlis) speaker Ali Larijani’s statement to change the Minsk Group format and the need to involve Iran in the process.
He noted that the the recent trilateral meeting held by Russian president Dmitry Medvedev with the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Kazan has made it possible to hope for progress in this difficult process and that the parties will take the Basic Principles to a more complex phase of negotiation and drafting of a peace agreement.
Recall, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov had travelled from Yerevan to Baku on a short working visit Friday. On behalf of the Russian head of state, Lavrov was to give to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev the same message from the Russian president on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict that he gave to Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan.
It is expected that Azerbaijani foreign minister Elmar Mammadyarov will also take part in the meeting with Azerbaijan’s president.