Yerevan, Baku Should Set Karabakh Settlement Time – Official

YEREVAN, BAKU SHOULD SET KARABAKH SETTLEMENT TIME – OFFICIAL

ITAR-TASS, Russia
March 7 2006

YEREVAN, March 7 (Itar-Tass) — The leaders of parties to the conflict
should set the Karabakh settlement time, U.S. Deputy Assistant
Secretary of State Matthew Bryza for European and Eurasian Affairs
said in Yerevan on Tuesday.

He said the United States was ready to do its best for the soonest
Karabakh settlement.

He disagreed with the opinion that the recent meeting between the
Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents in the Paris suburb of Rambouillet
was a failure. The sides were close to an intermediate agreement in
Rambouillet, and their inability to do that does not mean that the
process is in a deadlock, the diplomat said. He said that final steps
are always very difficult and require determination of the leaders.

Normalization between Armenia and Turkey will become a necessary
and natural consequence of the Karabakh settlement agreement, the
official said. He said that normalization of the Armenian-Turkish
relations was discussed at every meeting of American administration
members in Yerevan and Ankara.

Bryza said that his Tuesday meeting with Armenian President Robert
Kocharyan was very constructive.