Russian Foreign Ministry excludes possibility of new war in Karabakh

PanARMENIAN.Net - Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said the Ministry believes that there will be no new war in Nagorno Karabakh.

“The chances for a peace settlement of the conflict are better now than earlier. We work to bring it closer. There are not grounds to state that we are on the verge of a new conflict,” Ryabkov told journalists in his comments on the May 26 statement adopted in Deauville by Medvedev, Obama and Sarkozy with respect to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict resolution.

“A huge and coordinated work was implemented to resolve the situation, and there are chances for recording progress and reaching compromise,” RBC quoted Ryabkov as saying.

The leaders of the United States, France and Russia called on Armenia and Azerbaijan to move toward a peaceful resolution of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. "We...are convinced that it is time for the sides in the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh to take a decisive step toward a peaceful resolution (of the conflict)," said a joint statement by Presidents Barack Obama, Nicolas Sarkozy and Dmitry Medvedev. "We firmly call on the leaders of the sides to prepare their people for peace, not war," the statement said. "We call on the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia to demonstrate political will and finalize...the basic principles (of a peace agreement) during the forthcoming summit in June."

The Presidents of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan are slated to meet in June in the Russian city of Kazan, the next in a series of trilateral meetings on the conflict.