U.S. Negotiators Say Peace Talks Stall but Not Dead

Baku Today, Azerbaijan
March 17 2006

17/03/2006 19:12

A senior American diplomat believes there is still an opportunity
for Armenia and Azerbaijan to make a breakthrough in the Karabakh
settlement process.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs
Daniel Fried said in Yerevan on Thursday that he is convinced that
negotiations can be continued despite the lack of progress at the
latest round of high-level talks at Rambouillet.

“Both governments express their countries’ interests and take the
Karabakh settlement process seriously,” Fried said, sharing with
the media his impressions of the meetings with officials in Baku
and Yerevan.

On the last leg of his regional tour in the Armenian capital, Daniel
Fried met with Armenia’s President Robert Kocharian, Foreign Minister
Vartan Oskanian and Defense Minister Serzh Sarkisian.

Fried, who had visited Azerbaijan and Georgia, said the goal of his
trip was to study the situation in the region after the Rambouillet
meeting between the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan, as well as
to discuss a number of issues pertaining to the future of the region,
including energy security.

OSCE Minsk Group Cochairman from the United States Steven Mann, who
accompanied the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and
Eurasian Affairs in his tour, said: “It is a difficult fact that we
did not move ahead at Rambouillet. But the two countries’ presidents
are willing to move forward.”

On Wednesday, Fried and Mann had dinner with a dozen politicians
representing Armenia’s pro-government and opposition forces.

Fried said the U.S. Government is also interested in the democratic
situation in Armenia.

The American diplomats left Yerevan for Istanbul later on Thursday
to attend a meeting of the Minsk Group cochairmen due to be held there.