YEREVAN, DECEMBER 24, ARMENPRESS: In an interview with Russian Regnum news agency Russian cochairman of the OSCE Minsk group, Yuri Merzlyakov said foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan were one step away from striking a peace deal during their recent meeting in Prague that would put an end to more than a decade-long Armenian-Azeri opposition over Nagorno Karabagh.
Merzlyakov said provisions of a draft agreement , reached by the ministers in Prague were to be considered by presidents Robert Kocharian an Ilham Aliyev after their meeting on the sidelines of a CIS summit in Astana, Kazakhstan, together with the Minsk group cochairmen to make the final decision “to either accept it or not.”
The Russian diplomat said Azerbaijan’s decision to push for a debate at the UN General Assembly on the “situation in Azerbaijan’s occupied territories” has spoiled all plans.” Merzlyakov praised the UN for suspending debates, adding that Azerbaijan’s motion has blocked the conflict resolution for several months, but despite this the Russian diplomat said he hoped that next year meetings of Armenian and Azeri foreign ministers in Prague would produce positive results.
“I believe that the 2005 will become a decisive year to mark a breakthrough in the conflict resolution,” he said.
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