FRENCH MEDIATOR PLEASED WITH TALKS AHEAD OF ARMENIAN-AZERI MEETING ON KARABAKH

Mediamax news agency
12 Mar 07

Yerevan, 12 March: The French co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group,
Bernard Fassier, today described as "very constructive" his talks with
the Armenian and Azerbaijani leadership, which took place during the
past few days in Yerevan and Baku.

Speaking during a briefing in Yerevan today, Bernard Fassier said that
tomorrow in Geneva there will take place a meeting of the co-chairs
of the OSCE Minsk Group, where the agenda of the talks between the
Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers scheduled for 14 March
will be finally formed.

"If during the meeting between the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign
ministers in Geneva we manage to formulate the basic principles of
the settlement of the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict, after that one or
two more meetings between the foreign ministers will take place, the
results of which will be possible to submit for the consideration
of the presidents of the two countries," Bernard Fassier stated,
stressing that meetings between [Armenian President Robert] Kocharyan
and [Azerbaijani President Ilham] Aliyev will in no case take place
before the parliamentary election in Armenia, which is planned for
12 May.

The French mediator met the president of the Nagornyy Karabakh republic
(NKR), Arkadi Ghukasyan, in Yerevan today. The co-chair stated that
the mediators continue to believe that at a certain stage of the talks
it will become necessary that representatives of Nagornyy Karabakh
also participate in them.