ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
June 10, 2007 Sunday 01:57 AM EST

Armenia, Azerbaijan to discuss Karabakh on St Pete summit sidelines

ST PETERSBURG, June 10

Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders Robert Kocharyan and Ilkham Aliyev
will meet on the sidelines of the CIS informal summit in St.
Petersburg to make a breakthrough in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict
settlement.

The OSCE Minsk Group co-chaired by Russia, France and the United
States are expected to take part in the presidential meeting.

On the eve of the summit the Group held two rounds of political
consultations with the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents.

Mediators say “the two countries’ positions are now very close,”
but admit that “there is no need to think that all difficulties will
be resolved at the St. Petersburg meeting.”

High on the meeting’s agenda will be framework principles for the
Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement. Back in May 1994 the two
conflicting partied signed a ceasefire agreement with the mediation
of Russia and the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly.

The co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, Mathew Bryza of the United
States pointed out that the key principles for the settlement include
the withdrawal of Armenian troops from Azerbaijan’s territories,
deployment of peacekeeping forces in the conflict zone, creation of a
corridor between Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh and defining of Nagorno
Karabakh’s future status.

OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel
Moratinos, who visited Armenia earlier this week, believes that the
meeting in St. Petersburg may yield positive results and will confirm
the two parties’ good intentions.