NATO not to deploy peacekeepers in Nagornyy Karabakh

Mediamax news agency
24 Feb 05

YEREVAN

The special representative of the NATO secretary-general in the South
Caucasus and Central Asia, Robert Simmons, said in Yerevan today that
“NATO is not taking part in the settlement of the Nagornyy Karabakh
conflict and is not discussing the possible deployment of its
peacekeeping forces in the conflict zone”.

Simmons said this at a briefing in Yerevan today in reply to a
question from our Mediamax news agency correspondent.

He pointed out that NATO is “closely following the negotiations
between Armenia and Azerbaijan, however, this does not mean that we
are directly participating in this process”. The special
representative of the NATO secretary-general said that the OSCE Minsk
Group remains the most suitable format for the settlement of the
Nagornyy Karabakh conflict.

As for the possible deployment of NATO’s peacekeeping forces, “we are
not discussing this issue at all”, Simmons stressed. He explained that
in order to deploy peacekeeping forces, it is necessary to reach an
agreement on the settlement of the conflict first. And second, the
conflicting sides themselves should ask for the deployment of
peacekeeping forces, the special representative of the NATO
secretary-general said.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress