Lavrov: we need document with concrete steps on Karabakh settlement

The settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict requires a document with concrete steps, the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

"Now the main task is to prevent the outbreak of violence again," he stressed. "We have discussed with the President of Azerbaijan once again, and I hope this will be discussed with the participation of the Armenian side as well, that it is very important to go back to the ideas which have been fixed in the joint statements of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia 3-4 years ago, when there were meetings with participation of our presidents," the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry noted.

According to Lavrov, "issues related to confidence-building measures on the line of contact were discussed in addition to the efforts on the track of political settlement, search of the agreements how to deal with the whole situation".

"Then there was an idea to shift snipers on the contact line. It is very risky, when people look through the scope and see each other every hour, every minute. Someone's nerve may fail him," TASS cited him as saying.

The Foreign Minister said that "such steps have been planned for a long time." "By the way, according to the agreement between the presidents of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russia, the OSCE together with the co-chairs of the Minsk Group (Russia, France, the US) have been preparing concrete steps," he said.

The minister said that this issue was also raised at his meeting with the Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. "He supported such an approach," the Foreign Minister said. "Of course, with the understanding that we will apply these measures not in order to perpetuate the status quo, no one wants it, but in order to create a more favorable atmosphere for the political process, under which Russia is taking its own initiatives, in addition to the efforts of the three co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group," he explained.

"President Putin and before him the President Medvedev have actively promoted various ideas to unblock the situation through the liberation of the regions around Karabakh, while addressing the issue of its status," Lavrov said.

According to him, "several options are on the table." "Yesterday, we discussed it at the meeting with the President of Azerbaijan. We will continue our efforts," the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia concluded.