U.S. hopes for Armenia, Azerbaijan to discuss concrete steps on Karabakh

PanARMENIAN.Net - The U.S. hopes that Armenian and Azeri Presidents, Serzh Sargsyan and Ilham Aliyev will meet soon, the U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan told reporters on June 17, according to Trend.

"We hope that it will happen soon. But there are no dates yet at this point," Richard Morningstar said.

"As I have said many times, the U.S. thinks it is very important that the two presidents continue to meet and talk about concrete steps that could finally reach the resolution of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict," Morningstar stressed.

Eerier, the U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary Eric Rubin expressed hope that the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan, Serzh Sargsyan and Ilham Aliyev, will meet in the near future to continue the “constructive dialogue” that they began at their latest summit last November, Armenia Now reported.

Rubin said during the U.S. Helsinki Commission hearing on Azerbaijan on Wednesday, June 11 that the United States, as one of the three states co-chairing the OSCE Minsk Group, is doing everything to facilitate a peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict.

Noting the significant role of the OSCE, the U.S. official stressed that Washington has been working with the other co-chair nations, Russia and France, to move the process forward.

“I think the progress is very possible. The goal now is to see if we can get the meeting of the two leaders scheduled in the coming month, and we are hopeful and optimistic that it will happen,” he said.