Trend, Azerbaijan
March 20 2010

Foreign Ministry: Azerbaijan prepared to sign with Armenia an
agreement on non-use of force, but only after deoccupation of
Azerbaijani lands (UPDATED)

20.03.2010 14:56
Azerbaijan, Baku, March 20 / corr Trend News E.Tariverdiyeva /

EDITOR’S NOTE: Two paragraphs added at the end

"We welcome statement by Serzh Azadovich Sargsyan [Armenian president]
and his calls to sign a statement on non-use of force, and are
prepared to it but only after removal of a reason causing such a
threat. i.e. deoccupation of Azerbaijani territory," spokesman for the
Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Elkhan Polukhov told Trend News March 20.

"We will be prepared to sign such an agreement after the withdrawal of
Armenian occupant forces from the territory of Azerbaijan," Polukhov
said. He was commenting on Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan’s recent
interview to Euronews.

In his interview with Euronews Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said
the international community offers them to solve a dispute on the base
of three principles of the international law: right for
self-determination, territorial integrity and non-use of force.
"Taking the opportunity I want to appeal to Azerbaijan from the air
with a call to sign an agreement on non-use of force. It would lay a
foundation of confidence in Armenia and in Nagorno-Karabakh itself,
enable the people to understand that Azerbaijan takes a peaceable
position in solution of the conflict. Afterwards, we could work over
details ¦," he said.