The Presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia, Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sargsyan, are interested in intense negotiations on a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group James Warlick, who represents the United States, said in an interview with the Voice of America.
"The positions of the leaders are close they hold talks with each other, and I think that we need to encourage these negotiations," Novosti Armenia cites him.
The diplomat noted that both leaders will have to demonstrate their political will in order to resolve the conflict.
In his opinion, it's high time that peace was brought to the long-suffering land of Karabakh. The co-chair countries, including the US, are willing to provide all possible assistance in achieving this goal. "The time has come, and I believe that people will welcome prosperity and peace in the region. The region will change if we manage to achieve a peace settlement," Warlick said.
He recalled that a meeting between the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia, Elmar Mammadyarov and Edward Nalbandian, is to take place in New York in the near future. It is possible that talks between the presidents of the two states can also take place after a few months. In this regard, the co-chairman recalled that some progress has been made after each meeting of the two leaders.
James Warlick expressed his concern about the escalation of tensions in the conflict zone. If the main risk came from snipers at the time he behan his duties as a co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group, today the situation is much worse. "The tactic has changed. Mortars and other heavy artillery are used. Unfortunately, we have witnessed civilian casualties. This is unacceptable," the diplomat said.
In this regard, he assured that the United States supports confidence-building measures between the two parties of the conflict and they will continue to work to achieve this goal. At the same time, the main priority for them is to maintain the ceasefire and eliminate the violence in Nagorno-Karabakh. ‘‘It is difficult to achieve progress in negotiations without respect for the ceasefire regime,’’ Warlick said.
He stressed that the worsening relations between Russia and the United States don't affect their cooperation in resolving the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh.
