Lavrov: Agreements on Karabakh should be acceptable to all conflicting sides

YEREVAN, August 19. /ARKA/. Agreements on Karabakh should be acceptable to all conflicting sides, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with Armenian Public Television.

Otherwise, any attempts to settle the conflict will be ineffective.

Lavrov said that Russia had repeatedly said that it would accept any solution acceptable to all the sides of the conflict and is ready to become a guarantor of the settlement along with the United States, France and the OSCE.

“What Russia as a nation is doing for settling the Karabakh conflict is inseparable from those steps it takes with its American and French partners as co-chair of OSCE Minsk Group,” he said in his interview.

The minister said that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev pays special attention to the Karabakh problem and seeks compromising solutions to it.

The president has met with his Azerbaijani and Armenian counterparts.

“I was present at these meetings and can place it on record that tanks were very open and sincere,” Lavrov said.

At these meetings, he said, Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents were frankly presenting the obstacles to be overcome for finding a solution acceptable to both sides.

The Russian minister also stressed that Medvedev’s efforts are supported by other OSCE Minsk Group co-chair countries.

“Our objective is to follow the instructions the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair countries’ leaders have given to foreign ministers and special envoys of the three countries,” he said adding that these instructions imply the search of ways for peaceful settlement based on the principles agreed by the sides and reflecting the key OSCE principles.

Lavrov thinks this is not an easy situation, and, in his opinion, things are aggravated by outside factors.

Nevertheless, he said, the efforts will be continued.

“I hope we will reach progress,” the Russian foreign minister said in his interview. M.V.-0---