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U.S. Envoy Questions Armenian, Azeri Commitment To Peace

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  • U.S. Envoy Questions Armenian, Azeri Commitment To Peace

    U.S. ENVOY QUESTIONS ARMENIAN, AZERI COMMITMENT TO PEACE

    Armenialiberty.org
    http://www.azatutyun.am/content/article/24295392.html
    Aug 12 2011

    Robert Bradtke, the chief U.S. negotiator in the Nagorno-Karabakh
    peace process, has reportedly cast doubt on Armenia's and Azerbaijan's
    stated commitment to hammering out a compromise peace deal.

    "We [the United States, Russia and France] share the wish that there
    be no war. But do the parties have the political will?" Bradtke was
    on Thursday quoted by "The Washington Post" as saying.

    Bradtke co-chairs the OSCE's Minsk Group on Karabakh together with
    fellow diplomats from France and Russia. The troika regularly visits
    Armenia, Azerbaijan and Karabakh to try to narrow the conflicting
    parties' differences on a framework peace accord drafted by them.

    In a joint statement issued in late May, the U.S., French and Russian
    presidents urged their Armenian and Azerbaijani counterparts to
    finalize the basic principles of a peaceful settlement. "Further
    delay would only call into question the commitment of the sides to
    reach an agreement," they warned.

    Despite this pressure, Presidents Serzh Sarkisian and Ilham Aliyev
    failed to iron out their differences at their June 24 trilateral
    meeting in Kazan with Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev.

    Official Yerevan says Aliyev scuttled a breakthrough by demanding
    about a dozen last-minute changes in the latest version of the basic
    principles. Azerbaijani officials have not explicitly denied these
    claims.

    Bradtke sounded cautious about prospects for Karabakh peace when he
    last visited the conflict zone with the Russian and French co-chairs
    late last month. "We'll see over the coming weeks the results of the
    efforts that have been made," he told journalists in Yerevan.

    Later in July, Alexander Vershbow, the U.S. assistant secretary
    of defense for international security affairs, expressed concern
    about what he reportedly described as a "dangerous stalemate" in the
    international efforts to end the Karabakh dispute.

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