March 27, 2004 - 18:52 AMT
IN KEY WEST WE HAD PROGRESS ON KARABAKH, NOT AGREEMENTS, US DEPUTY STATE SECRETARY SAID
Considerable progress was made at the talks over the Nagorno Karabakh conflict in Key West 3 years ago, "however, we cannot speak of agreements reached there," US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage told journalists in Yerevan before leaving for Baku yesterday. In his words, he participated in the negotiations himself and knows that "when Azeri President Heydar Aliyev returned to Baku from Key West and presented the proposals over the Karabakh settlement, he faced much difficulties there." At that Armitage noted that "the solution of the Karabakh conflict cannot be imposed from outside" and said he hoped for Armenia and Azerbaijan to resume talks in the near future. The Deputy State Secretary noted that he considered his duty to tell the parties to conflict that the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs are ready to continue efforts to help find ways of peaceful settlement of the problem.