Azeri foreign minister addresses UN over Karabakh settlement

ANS Radio, Baku
24 Nov 04

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov addressed the 59th
session of the UN General Assembly in New York a few hours ago. He
spoke about the obstacles to the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani
conflict created by official Yerevan and specifically about the
Armenian leadership settling Armenian families on the occupied
Azerbaijani territories. It must be remembered that a special
resolution on the situation on the occupied Azerbaijani lands is
expected to be adopted at the 59th session of the UN General Assembly
on 26 November.

Dilsad Aliyarli, a correspondent of the Voice of America TV station,
will give us the latest details from the USA.

[Correspondent by phone] Mammadyarov said that the draft resolution
submitted to the UN was balanced and constructive. He ruled out that
this was an attempt to instruct the UN General Assembly to resolve
the conflict. The point is about the problem itself which delays
the peace process and might lead to humanitarian disaster if the
situation continues to be the case. The minister said that Armenia
should immediately take effective and unconditional measures to stop
the settlement process in Azerbaijan’s occupied lands and the Armenian
government should guarantee clearly and resolutely that it will not
repeat this kind of illegal policy and activity. The Azerbaijani
foreign minister said that he had been using all diplomatic means
to prevent the dangerous development of events in the occupied
lands. At the end of his speech, Mammadyarov stressed that the talks
were continuing and that he regularly contacted the OSCE Minsk Group
co-chairs.