PRESIDENTIAL MEETING LIKELY AFTER SARGSYAN’S INAUGURATION

PanARMENIAN.Net
25.03.2008 15:43 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ I know there has been an inquiry from the Azerbaijani
mission to the OSCE about what would be the procedures were any country
to wish to withdraw from the Minsk Group. But I do not know about
anything that went beyond an inquiry, OSCE Minsk Group U.S. Co-chair
Matthew Bryza said.

"When I read Mr. Oskanian’s statement about Baku’s intention to
dissolve the Minsk Group, it was news to me, and I have not seen
confirmation that the Azerbaijani effort had in fact moved that far,"
he said.

As to Azerbaijani Ambassador to the U.S. Vilayat Guliyev’s description
of the Minsk Group as ‘useless’ and its approach to the conflict as
‘tendentious and one-sided’, Mr Bryza said, "Ambassador Guliyev,
with all due respect, is not participating in negotiations under
the Minsk Group and I would presume is not aware of the details of
what is on the table. And what is on the table is a fair and balanced
compromise that includes elements that are attractive to Azerbaijan,
an interpretation of which was cited in the UN GA resolution, but
there are also many elements that are very attractive to Armenia that
were not cited in that resolution. So I do not think that any of the
people that are out there criticizing the Minsk Group proposals are
aware of what is really in the proposal.

Asked about possibility of a meeting between Armenia’s president-elect
Serzh Sargsyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev during the
upcoming NATO summit in Romania, which both plan to attend, The U.S.

diplomat said, "What we said is that it would be useful for there
to be a meeting between the presidents as soon as they are ready to
meet. I do not know when that is going to happen. It could be at the
NATO summit or just after that. The calendar is a bit complicated in
that President-elect Sargsyan will not be inaugurated until April 9,
and the summit in Romania is from April 2 to 4. So Prime Minister
Sargsyan will not yet be the president. So, there is a protocol
problem, which could lead to a delay, but it is up to them if they
get together there. And if they don’t, they would be able to meet
shortly thereafter."

"In terms of agenda, it is clear now that the president-elect of
Armenia is in favor of continuing on the basis of the proposal on the
table, as it was presented at the OSCE ministerial meeting in Madrid
last November," he said in an interview with The Armenian Reporter.