Azerbaijan, Armenia Work On New Peace Plan

Radio Free Europe, Czech Republic
June 11 2004

Baku/Prague, 11 June 2004 (RFE/RL) — Azerbaijani Foreign Minister
Elmar Mammadyarov says Azerbaijani and Armenian negotiators are
taking a new approach to settling their dispute over the territory
of Nagorno-Karabakh.

In an interview today with RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani service, Mammadyarov
said Baku and Yerevan are working on a plan that will include elements
from each side’s previous proposals.

“Azerbaijan stands for a step-by-step approach, and the Armenian side
stands for a package approach. What we are right now working on is
to try to pick up from each approach ideas that would be acceptable
to both sides and put them into one basket,” Mammadyarov said.

Mammadyarov was referring to Baku’s insistence that ethnic Armenian
troops withdraw from all Azerbaijani lands they have been occupying
since the 1994 cease-fire agreement before negotiating the status of
Karabakh. Yerevan wants both issues to be resolved simultaneously.

Mammadyarov did not elaborate on the negotiations, saying
confidentiality is needed to ensure the good continuation of peace
talks.

The Azerbaijani envoy is due to meet his Armenian counterpart Vardan
Oskanian later this month in the Czech capital Prague.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress