AZERI FM, UN HEAD DISCUSS KARABAKH SETTLEMENT PROBLEM

ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
March 21, 2007 Wednesday

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mamedyarov and UN Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon have discussed the problem of the Karabakh conflict
settlement. The UN secretary-general’s press service told Itar-Tass
that the talks were held in the UN headquarters on Tuesday.

The Azerbaijani foreign minister told Ban Ki-moon about the results of
his recent consultations in Geneva with the Armenian foreign minister
with the participation of the co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group for
Nagorno Karabakh. According to Mamedyarov, "no serious breakthrough"
was achieved in Geneva and now the minister hopes that the next meeting
will be held at the level of the presidents after the parliamentary
elections in Armenia that are scheduled for May 12.

The Azerbaijani foreign minister also informed the UN secretary-general
of the discussion held in the GUAM (a regional organisation uniting
Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova) on the ways of settlement
of conflicts in the territory of GUAM member states and called on
the United Nations to be more involved in their settlement.

Mamedyarov expressed the hope for more expanded cooperation with the
United Nations and confirmed Baku’s intention to play a more active
role in the activities of the world organisation, including in the
UN Human Rights Council, a member of which is Azerbaijan.