Iran proposes to mediate in Karabakh
press tv
Sun, 05 Oct 2008 09:22:46 GMT
The Islamic Republic has offered to mediate between Azerbaijan and
Armenia to resolve the Karabakh conflict, an Iranian official says.
`Iran has proposed to mediate between Azerbaijan and Armenia in the
resolution of the conflict,’ Iran’s Ambassador to Azerbaijan Nasser
Hamidi Zare’ told Trend News.
`Iran has held discussion on this issue with both parties of the
conflict, " he added.
The Iranian mediation offer comes as other regional countries have
proposed other plans to resolve the issue.
"There are certain processes ongoing in this region. Iran and other
neighboring countries are interested in finding ways out of the
situation," said Zare.
Both Azerbaijan and Armenia claim the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh,
which has a population mostly of Armenians but is located within
Azerbaijan.
Ethnic Armenian forces took control of the Nagorno-Karabakh along with
seven surrounding regions during a war in the early 1990s. The war left
thousands killed and forced nearly a million people on both sides to
flee their homes.
A ceasefire was signed in 1994 but the dispute has so far remained
unsettled. Clashes often erupt along the ceasefire line and
negotiations have so far proved fruitless.
The Minsk group, which consists of 13 members of the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), h
as provided a forum for
negotiations to settle the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh since 1992.
So far, there has been no settlement of the dispute.
The Iranian ambassador hoped that Azerbaijan and Armenia would soon
express their opinion about Tehran’s proposals.
Zare’ said that Iran was willing to do its best to establish mutual
relations between countries in the region so that they would find a
common ground.