"Needs Assessment Mission for Armenia" has no OSCE mandate

No group called "OSCE Needs Assessment Mission for Armenia" has an OSCE mandate, according to the press service of Azerbaijan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan issued a statement regarding the issues of sending a group called "OSCE Needs Assessment Mission for Armenia" to Armenia.

"The issue in connection with the dispatch to Armenia of a team of the Secretariat of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), referred to as an "OSCE needs assessment mission", has never been discussed by any collective decision-making body of the OSCE, and as a result, no decisions were taken on this issue. At the same time, no group referred to as the “OSCE Mission for Assessing the Needs of Armenia” has an OSCE mandate, can't be associated with it in any way, and none of its results or reports will be considered as documents OSCE," the ministry said in a statement.

"This is a one-sided statement put forward by Armenia is nothing more than a personal visit by a group of several states members, and any result of this visit will be assessed accordingly. This step causes serious concern, given that the mission in connection with efforts to stop the military ceasefire against Azerbaijan for almost 30 years and liquidation of its grave consequences as well as issues that don't relate to the former Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, were generally prevented by OSCE with reference to the principle of consensus," the ministry stated.

"The fact is that in the framework of the OSCE based on consensus it took years to agree upon the two OSCE missions to formerly occupied territories of Azerbaijan in 2005 and 2010 due to the openly non-constructive position by Armenia," the ministry said.

"Taking into account the countless illegal activities in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, including the facts of illegal settlements in these territories, Azerbaijan's appeal to send another such mission was not addressed before 2020, again due to Armenia's opposition," the ministry said.

"Such one-sided actions by the OSCE Chairmanship and Secretariat go contrary to the basic principles of any responsible and credible mediation and confidence-building, which require, inter alia, the consent of the parties, the impartiality of mediators and compliance with obligations of States under international law,” the ministry stated.