French mediator upbeat about chances for resolving Armenian-Azeri conflict

Azad Azarbaycan TV, Baku
25 May 05

[Presenter] The French co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group, Bernard
Fassier, believes that there are favourable conditions for the signing
of a peace accord [to resolve the Karabakh conflict].

Fassier said that at the Warsaw meeting between the [Armenian and
Azerbaijani] presidents [on 15 May], the mediating countries occupied
a clear-cut position, i.e. a military option is unacceptable. There
are good opportunities to speed up the resolution of the Karabakh
problem after the Warsaw meeting of the presidents and consequently,
to hammer out a peace agreement, Bernard Fassier said.

The French co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, believes that the
activities of the co-chairmen and the [Azerbaijani and Armenian]
foreign ministers has considerably increased. Assessing this
positively, the co-chairman thinks that there is no way that the peace
talks can be abandoned at this stage.

[Fassier, speaking in Russian with Azeri voice-over] A peaceful
resolution to the conflict is the best option. It is important to
speed up the process for resolving the conflict. There is some
fundamental progress though it is insufficient. We hope to succeed in
signing an agreement between the sides to the conflict in the end.

[Correspondent] While giving a high assessment of the presidents’
Warsaw meeting, the diplomat said that the French and Russian foreign
ministers in the talks had not submitted a peace plan to the
presidents. Fassier said that they had only provided them with their
recommendations for a peace initiative. However, the ministers also
highlighted that it was Armenia and Azerbaijan which shoulder primary
responsibility.

[Passage omitted: the sides involved in the conflict rather than
mediators should make more of an effort to seek a solution; tension on
the border has eased recently]