Kazan meeting mightn't be discussed at Ahmadinejad, Sargsyan, Aliyev phone talks

PanARMENIAN.Net - Deputy director of Caucasus Institute, Armenian political expert Sergei Minasyan is not sure that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad discussed the oncoming meeting in Kazan in his phone conversations with Armenian and Azerbaijani Presidents.

“The conversations might refer to Iranian President's cancelled visit to Yerevan, as well as his plans for a future visit. A conversation with Aliyev might include discussions on preservation of balance in Iran-Armenia-Azerbaijan relations.”

“We're all aware the balance is not symmetrical. Iran is largely interested in preservation of current borders between Karabakh and Azerbaijan,” he noted.

The Presidents of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia – Serzh Sargsyan, Ilham Aliyev and Dmitry Medvedev - are slated to meet on June 25 in the Russian city of Kazan, the next in a series of trilateral meetings on the Karabakh conflict settlement.

There are certain expectations with respect to the meeting, taking into consideration the Deauville statement adopted by the leaders of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair countries, who said “the time has arrived for all the sides to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict to take a decisive step towards a peaceful settlement. Further delay [in the settlement] would only call into question the commitment of the sides to reach an agreement.”