At the end of September, during the session of the UN General Assembly in New York, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov will meet the OSCE Minsk Group, 1news.az cites a French diplomatic source as saying.
The same source noted that the Armenian side rejected a joint meeting with his Azerbaijani counterpart, but a meeting with the co-chairmen and the Armenian foreign minister is planned.
According to the source, the aim of the co-chairmen is currently to reduce the tension between the parties, which appeared after the incidents on the front line in June this year, as well as after the extradition and subsequent pardon of Azerbaijani officer Ramil Safarov.
According to the source, President Ilham Aliyev said in Paris that Azerbaijan is ready to continue peace talks and has never refused to do so.
On the question of the possibility of Turkey chairing the OSCE Minsk Group, the source said it was impossible because of strong opposition in Armenia. He also noted that Azerbaijan holds the mistaken belief that France takes a pro-Armenian position. "France tries to fulfil its mediation duties faithfully," he said. The source also said that we should not exaggerate the influence of the Armenian lobby on the position of the Paris government. According to him, of the 577 members of the National Assembly of France only 4 or 5 are elected from districts where Armenians live.
"In recent years, the influence of Azerbaijan is also growing in Europe, because of its energy policy. Therefore, we can say that the influence of both Azerbaijan and Armenia in Europe is practically identical. France, as a co-chair of OSCE Minsk Group, is committed to rapprochement between the parties" the source said.
The source also said that France supports the withdrawal of snipers on the front line and believes that this will be the first step towards building trust between the sides.
