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KERRY PLEDGES TO HELP END CONFLICT OVER NAGORNO-KARABAKH
Xinhua General News Service, China
June 3, 2013 Monday 6:11 PM EST
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry pledged on Monday to continue
efforts to help end the long- running conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh
between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
Prior to a meeting with his Azerbaijani counterpart Elmar Mammadyarov
at the State Department, Kerry said "This is a frozen conflict, as
we call it, one that threatens the stability of the region and one
that we need to deal with."
"The last thing we want is a return to war and to conflict," stressed
the top American envoy, whose country co-chairs the Minsk Group of
the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe along with
Russia and France, which has been mediating the conflict.
"I believe there is a path forward, and we will continue to work
quietly and patiently in an effort to try to encourage the parties
to be able to take either confidence-building measures that may get
to further down the road, or to find a way towards a settlement with
respect to this issue," Kerry added.
The Azerbaijani minister said he believed his country can move past
the challenges with the help of the United States. "All the negative
outcome of the conflict will be in the past, and we will look to the
bright future of successful cooperation and living next to each other
as a good neighborhood," he added.
Nagorno-Karabakh lies within Azerbaijan but has been controlled by
Armenian troops and ethnic forces since a separatist war broke out in
1988. The two South Caucasus countries signed a cease-fire agreement
in 1994 but skirmishes have broken out time and again despite repeated
mediation by the Minsk Group.
Kerry is scheduled to meet with his Armenian counterpart Edward
Nalbandian on Tuesday.
Xinhua General News Service, China
June 3, 2013 Monday 6:11 PM EST
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry pledged on Monday to continue
efforts to help end the long- running conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh
between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
Prior to a meeting with his Azerbaijani counterpart Elmar Mammadyarov
at the State Department, Kerry said "This is a frozen conflict, as
we call it, one that threatens the stability of the region and one
that we need to deal with."
"The last thing we want is a return to war and to conflict," stressed
the top American envoy, whose country co-chairs the Minsk Group of
the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe along with
Russia and France, which has been mediating the conflict.
"I believe there is a path forward, and we will continue to work
quietly and patiently in an effort to try to encourage the parties
to be able to take either confidence-building measures that may get
to further down the road, or to find a way towards a settlement with
respect to this issue," Kerry added.
The Azerbaijani minister said he believed his country can move past
the challenges with the help of the United States. "All the negative
outcome of the conflict will be in the past, and we will look to the
bright future of successful cooperation and living next to each other
as a good neighborhood," he added.
Nagorno-Karabakh lies within Azerbaijan but has been controlled by
Armenian troops and ethnic forces since a separatist war broke out in
1988. The two South Caucasus countries signed a cease-fire agreement
in 1994 but skirmishes have broken out time and again despite repeated
mediation by the Minsk Group.
Kerry is scheduled to meet with his Armenian counterpart Edward
Nalbandian on Tuesday.