Epress.am News from Armenia
The Nagorno-Karabakh negotiations appear to be at a “dead end,” said French diplomat Roland Galharague, who added that “Minsk [The OSCE Minsk Group] is going nowhere fast,” according to a US diplomatic cable released by whistleblowers’ website WikiLeaks on Dec. 6. The cable, sent by the US Embassy in Paris to the State Department, is dated Feb. 22, 2010.
Galharague, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs “A/S [Assistant Secretary]–equivalent for Continental Europe,” further notes that France is not in a position to exert pressure on the Armenians on the threshold of regional elections in France.
“He noted that the French government is not in a position to push the Armenians at the moment because French citizens of Armenian origin ‘represent about 500,000 votes’ and French regional elections will take place in March,” reads the cable.
The French diplomat added, other factors may “soon impact” the Caucasus region, such as “instability in Iran”:
“Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Turkmenistan all have important trade and energy ties with Iran and they could be immediately affected by the Iran sanctions bill currently making its way through the U.S. Congress. At the same time, the effort to impose harsher U.N. sanctions may offer us an opportunity to further engage with those three countries about their approach to Iran.”