Clinton seeks to restart talks between Azerbaijan, Armenia

Clinton seeks to restart talks between Azerbaijan, Armenia

PanARMENIAN.Net - On July 4, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev met with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Aliyev called on the United States to help solve the Karabakh dispute.

"We want to find a resolution as soon as possible," he told Clinton ahead of their closed-door meeting.

Clinton acknowledged that the issue was "of importance" to Washington but did not elaborate, RFE/RL reported.

She will travel later the same day to Armenia, where she is also expected to push for a restart of peace talks over Nagorno Karabakh.

The U.S. secretary of state is in Azerbaijan on the third stop of a five-nation tour of Eastern Europe and the Caucasus.

The conflict between Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan

The conflict between Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan broke out as result of the ethnic cleansing launched by the Azeri authorities in the final years of the Soviet Union. The Karabakh War was fought from 1991 (when the Nagorno Karabakh Republic was proclaimed) to 1994 (when a ceasefire was sealed by Armenia, NKR and Azerbaijan). Most of Nagorno Karabakh and a security zone consisting of 7 regions are now under control of NKR defense army. Armenia and Azerbaijan are holding peace talks mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group up till now.

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