Pashinyan clarifies reasons behind delay in signing peace treaty with Azerbaijan

YEREVAN, March 5. /ARKA/. In an interview with Iran's state television (IRIB), Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan responded to the question of why a peace treaty with Azerbaijan has not yet been signed.

"There are two more articles in the draft peace treaty that we have not yet been able to agree on, and we continue to work on this," he said.

On February 25 of this year, Armenia received Azerbaijan's response regarding the peace treaty. According to Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ani Badalyan, proposals in other areas — such as unblocking communications and establishing a mechanism for mutual control and verification of weapons — remain unanswered.

Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan stated in early December of last year that Armenia and Azerbaijan had made significant progress in negotiating a peace agreement, noting that the parties had already agreed on 15 of the 17 articles in the preamble and the draft agreement. He added that with sufficient political will, the agreement could be quickly finalized and signed.

Earlier, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev mentioned that one of the disagreements concerns the non-deployment of third-country forces on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border, and the other concerns the withdrawal of lawsuits filed against each other in international courts.