IVANOV: “I DO NOT RULE OUT THE POSSIBILITY OF PEACEKEEPERS APPEARING IN NK CONFLICT ZONE”

Today, Azerbaijan
May 31 2006

A long-running dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the Nagorno
Karabakh region should be resolved by the two countries themselves
and not by third parties, Russia’s defense minister said Wednesday.

Speaking at a news conference in the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, Sergei
Ivanov said: “Any settlement scheme imposed from the outside could
in my opinion be not only counterproductive, but also very dangerous.”

He said international mediators should not try to impose a solution
on Armenia and Azerbaijan, but should facilitate the implementation
of any agreement the sides may reach over Karabakh bilaterally,
RIA Novosti informs.

Ivanov also said peacekeepers could be deployed in the zone of the
conflict, which claimed 30,000 lives on both sides between 1988 and
1994 after the Azerbaijani region with a largely Armenian population
proclaimed independence from Azerbaijan in a bid to join Armenia.

“I do not rule out the possibility of peacekeepers appearing in
the Karabakh conflict zone in the foreseeable future to enforce all
political agreements that will be reached sooner or later,” he said.

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