OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen bring new proposals to Baku

BAKU. July 15 (Interfax-Azerbaijan) – The co-chairmen of the OSCE
Minsk Group have brought new proposals on a Karabakh settlement to
Azerbaijan, Russia’s representative in the group, Yury Merzlyakov,
said in Baku on Thursday.

“There are new ideas, but we have to negotiate with the Azerbaijani
administration first. The new ideas have been discussed with the
Armenian authorities, and now they will be introduced to Azerbaijan,”
he said.

A decision on Karabakh’s involvement in the negotiations is up to the
negotiating parties, he said. “To my mind, all parties must take part
in the negotiations,” he said.

Merzlyakov is visiting Azerbaijan together with France’s co- chairman
Henri Jacolin. U.S. co-chairman Thomas Mann has left Armenia for
Tbilisi as the American representative for the settlement of conflicts
in the South Caucasus. He will meet with Georgian officials to discuss
the situation in South Ossetia and come to Baku afterwards.

Baku lost control of Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjoining districts in
a conflict with Armenia in the 1990s.

The UN Security Council has denounced the occupation of Azerbaijani
lands and demanded that Armenia withdraw its forces.

The U.S., Russian and French co-chairmen of the OSCE’s Minsk Group are
working to settle the conflict.