Tomas Holtz: "The Moscow summit and declaration, signed by its result, is Russia's next attempt to demonstrate its leading role in the South Caucasus"

- By results of talks the Presidents of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russia signed a joint declaration in Moscow, in which the sides confirmed their loyalty to the principles of the peaceful resolution of the conflict and undertook to intensify the negotiation process. The document also says that the search of ways for the conflict solution must be accompanied by the legally binding international security guarantees. What do you think is behind this Moscow's initiative, which obviously bypasses other mediating states in the Karabakh solution?

- I think the Moscow summit and declaration, signed by its result, is Russia's next attempt to demonstrate its leading role in the South Caucasus. I think this is an integral part of the Russian policy to expand or restore its influence in this region.

- Can the Turkey initiative to create a platform of stability and cooperation in the Caucasus region be effective? This initiative, according to mass medias, was approved by the Kremlin. At the same time, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in early November that the issue of security in the Caucasus is being discussed in different formats and announced that the interest for participation in the discussion about creation of the security zone in the Caucasus is also demonstrated by Iran. This issue was once discussed between Baku and Tehran. What is behind the plans to include Iran into the list of regional peacekeepers?

- The proposal of the Russian Foreign Minister to involve Iran into any peacekeeping activity either conflicts in Georgia or Nagorno Karabakh conflict seems symbolical. In other words, this proposal can be considered as a challenge to the diplomatic efforts of the United States, aimed at not allowing Iran to any significant processes.

- Can it be suggested in this connection that even in case of successful inclusion of Iran into the international peacekeeping mission, the initiatives of this country will be hampered by the Americans? And don't you think that the involvement of new countries to the resolution of regional conflicts will hardly facilitate their settlement, especially speaking about Nagorno Karabakh conflict, which is complicated by the current differences between the main mediators in the resolution of this problem - Russia and the United States?

- It does not make any difference whether Russia will manage to execute this initiative, along with the Turkey's proposal on the creation of the Stability and Cooperation Platform in the region.

The most important is to bring together different formulas, offered beyond the Minsk Group format.

/Day.Az/