FASSIER: PARTIES ARE UNABLE TO ACHIEVE A PROGRESS WITHOUT THE CO-CHAIRS

ARMINFO News Agency
October 3, 2006 Tuesday

After the meeting of Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents in Bucharest,
the Co-chairs made a statement wherein they said they exhausted their
creativity. Factually, we have faced a fact when we should hint the
parties that they must think over the proposals on the table better,
said OSCE MG Co-chairman Bernard Fassier (France) at a press conference
in Yerevan.

B. Fassier said that he stated yesterday in Baku that the co-chairs
have exhausted not only their creativity but also themselves after
the two-year intensive work. Nevertheless, he said that the parties
are unable to achieve a progress without the Co-chairs. He said that
the new Co-chair joining the two old ones is an additional factor
for continuation of the process, which refreshed and increased the
creative approach. The advanced key principles are the best version the
mediators could propose. They must be a basis for a future agreement
on the settlement, he said. Bernard Fassier added that there were
cases in past when a draft document was prepared before the agreement
on the key principles by the parties. Of course, they were doomed to
failure. Now, the Co- chairs try to prepare the foundation and then
erect a building on it, B. Fassier said. We encourage the parties
to search ways for establishment of durable peace, he said. By their
statement, the Co-chairs did not violate the principle of confidential
negotiations and that the approaches and the steps of the parties to
these principles remain unknown. It is not, it was not and will not
be a public information so far, B. Fassier said.

He said that G8 Summit in St. Petersburg supported the key principles
proposed by OSCE MG. However, it is not enough if the parties fail to
arrive at an agreement as their peoples are not ready for co-residence,
no one can help. The future of the country and its people depends
on the ability to arrive at an agreement, he said for conclusion. In
his turn, Yuri Merzlyakov (Russia) said that the Co-chairs proposed
additional elements to one of the principles.

However, he did not specified them.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress