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Armenian ex-minister says Karabakh settlement part of USA's Iran pla

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  • Armenian ex-minister says Karabakh settlement part of USA's Iran pla

    Armenian ex-minister says Karabakh settlement part of USA's Iran plan

    Aykakan Zhamanak, Yerevan
    25 Mar 06

    Excerpt from Nikol Pashinyan's report in Armenian newspaper Aykakan
    Zhamanak on 25 March headlined "Unfortunately, there is no alternative
    to Ter-Petrosyan"

    An interview with former Interior Minister Vano Siradegyan.

    [Passage omitted: Siradegyan on what he has been doing since leaving
    the post]

    [Correspondent] How do you assess today's domestic political situation
    in Armenia?

    [Siradegyan] There has been no sign of a political life over the past
    18 months. The political elite is evidently confused and is gradually
    slipping into a state of panic. Incidentally, the opposition is in
    more panic.

    [Passage omitted: minor details]

    [Correspondent] How do you assess the international position of Armenia
    and, in particular, today's situation around the Karabakh issue? Can
    hostilities resume?

    [Siradegyan] Those who support preserving the status quo in the matter
    of Karabakh, i.e. political idlers, and those who have cashed in on
    the blockade believe that the situation created around Iran will delay
    the Karabakh issue even more. They think we shall be forgotten. But
    quite the contrary is more likely. I am afraid that Iran's problem
    may be settled "stage by stage" and that Karabakh will be its first
    stage. That is to say, Armenian troops will be removed from the left
    bank of the River Araz.

    One should not think that Washington is exhausted because of the
    situation in Iraq. Nobody knows whether or not the occupation of
    Iraq was the next stage after Afghanistan in the programme of Iranian
    "problem settlement". Anyway, the problem of the left bank is always
    on the agenda. It becomes the third and even the fourth stage if we
    take into account the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon.

    The threat of war is serious because both political and diplomatic
    resources of the authorities have been exhausted. One or two more
    meetings will mean nothing. There are two ways out: either resignation
    or war. I think that resignation is more possible.

    [Passage omitted: Siradegyan speculates on domestic political
    relations, possible development of events]
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