Armenian opposition leader says USA boosting efforts in Karabakh settlement

Arminfo
24 Mar 06

Yerevan, 24 March: The USA is boosting its efforts in the settlement
of the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict in parallel with the OSCE Minsk
Group, the secretary of the opposition Justice bloc, Viktor Dallakyan,
told a briefing at the Armenian National Assembly today.

He said that the recent visits of US Assistant Secretary of State
Daniel Fried and US co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group Steven Mann to
the region testified to this. Dallakyan noted that at his meeting with
Fried and Mann, he had an impression that the goal of their visit to
the region was to learn the positions of the two sides and public
opinion in detail.

Dallakyan confirmed that at the meeting Fried and Mann had said that a
militarily settlement to the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict was
inadmissible and that they were putting pressure on Azerbaijan in this
regard. Dallakyan believes that Russian co-chairman Yuriy Merzlyakov’s
absence from the OSCE Minsk Group meeting in Istanbul could be
explained by increased US activity in the Nagornyy Karabakh
settlement.

[Passage omitted: Merzlyakov did not take part in the Istanbul meeting
because of illness]