OSCE MG U.S. Co-chair sees chance to resolve Karabakh conflict

PanARMENIAN.Net - There is a window of opportunity to resolve the Nagorno Karabakh conflict now that has not existed for some time, the U.S. Co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group said.

"The U.S. believes in this window of opportunity. We want to work through with the Co-chairs and if there is anything that we can do on a bilateral basis to facilitate the peace process, we stand ready," James Warlick said in an interview with Trend and AzerNews on Monday, Nov 4.

According to Warlick, he visited Baku to join other Co-chairs and see if there is an opportunity after the elections in Azerbaijan and earlier elections in Armenia. "We talked with President Ilham Aliyev this morning and will be talking tomorrow in Yerevan with President Serzh Sargsyan,” he said.

"I believe the people of both countries - Armenia and Azerbaijan - deserve peace and prosperity. We need to find a way to that. The reason I took this job as Co-chair is because I believe it is possible to find a way towards peace," he added.

Warlick said he is ready to come back to the region as many times as it is necessary in order to reach a peaceful settlement.

When asked about the meeting of the two presidents, Warlick said it is up to them. "It is not the decision to be made only by Co-chairs. But we are trying to work to facilitate the meeting this year".

"We hope that it can lead to real peace process, to comprehensive negotiations, can lead to settlement that will benefit to both countries. We have very positive discussions this morning with President Aliyev. If there is a political will to move forward on the settlement, we are ready to help," he said.

According to Warlick, what the Co-chairs want to do is to bring the presidents together to talk through the way forward. "It has been nearly two years the presidents have seen each other and over those two years we have not been able to find a way forward. We hope the presidents can meet, have a productive discussion, constructive discussion that can find a way forward," he said.

"We are hopeful that if the presidents can talk to each other, they will find a way to move forward to this constructive negotiation. Right now the process is not moving forward in the productive way and we would like to get that on the track towards peace," he added.

Speaking on the basic principles for the resolution of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, Warlick said that this is exactly what the presidents need to talk about. "Today we have been working on the basic principles. Our job is to facilitate that path into comprehensive negotiations. It would need to be a decision taken by the two presidents".

When asked about suggestion of replacing France with European Union in the OSCE Minsk Group, Warlick said the parties to the conflict continue to believe and working through the Minsk Group. “The problem is not the format of negotiations, the issue is one has a political will and there is a will of all parties to move forward to find a settlement or not. That is what we would like to explore in the coming weeks.”

Speaking about the similarity between Nagorno Karabakh and the other conflicts, Warlick said that it is very hard to compare conflicts because they are so different and circumstances are also different.

"Before taking this job I was working on Afghanistan and I was a lead negotiator for a bilateral security agreement. Those two were difficult negations but we were able to find a way forward. So with Nagorno Karabakh, these are difficult negotiations, these are hard choices that have to be made. But this is a conflict that can be solved. The parties have come close in the past and I think the people of both countries deserve to find a way to peace. The time has come. If I can be helpful in facilitating, the U.S. and co-chairs can help to facilitate this process, we are ready to do that," he said.