US offers to hold meeting in Washington on Karabakh conflict’s settlement

By Trend

The US offered to hold the next meeting of the Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers in Washington on the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said at a press conference in Poland, Trend reports.

Mammadyarov spoke about his meeting with Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan with the participation of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, as well as the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs and Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk in Moscow.

“I briefed about our aspiration to the conflict resolution which is almost 30 years old and noted that we need to reach a breakthrough,” he said. “Yesterday we got invitation of the US to visit Washington where the Secretary of State will also put his own way to reach a breakthrough on the conflict resolution."

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.