KIRO MANOYAN: NAGORNO KARABAKH SETTLEMENT SEEMS NOT SO PRIMARY IN
LIGHT OF LATEST EVENTS IN NEAR EAST

YEREVAN, JULY 21, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. The development of
latest Near Eastern and regional events, including the events around
Iran and problems in Russian-Georgian relations show that the Nagorno
Karabakh settlement seems not so primary contrary to the mediators’
prognoses about achieving success by the first half of the year. Kiro
Manoyan, ARFD Bureau Hay Dat and Political Office Head, declared at
the July 21 meeting at the Pastark club.

Manoyan emphasized that all this does not mean that the mediators
will stop their efforts in the issue of conflict settlement. As a
proof he mentioned OSCE Minsk Group American Co-chair Matthew Bryza’s
forthcoming, July 21 visit to Yerevan.

In connection with the Israeli actions in Lebanon Manoyan said that
Israel motivates these actions by taking hostages two Israelis by
Hzbollah, and Turkey, according to him, with the same motivations
wishes to invade into North Iraq for the purpose of delivering a blow
to the Kurdish divisions.

According to the speaker, the end of the current Arab-Israeli conflict
is not seen, the changes are still ahead and it seems that all this
will last at least for several months.

Touching upon the Armenian-Iranian relations, Kiro Manoyan
declared that the agreements reached with the Iranian side are
"irreplaceable." "Both Armenian-Iranian and Armenian-Georgian relations
are irreplaceable. The more positive the results of the events around
Iran are the better for us," the speaker emphasized.

Kiro Manoyan also expressed an opinion that the events in the Near
Eastern region have tendency of decreasing Iran’s role in the region,
in particular, in Lebanon where Tehran has a great influence on
Hzbollah and in Iraq where the political role of the Iranians is larger
than the role of the U.S. that has purely military advantages in Iraq.