US Department of State: Russian co-chair of OSCE Minsk Group declines invitation to discuss future of Nagorno-Karabakh

YEREVAN, June 28. /ARKA/. 'The U.S. OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair spoke with her counterparts today to discuss the future of Nagorno-Karabakh,' the U.S. State Department's Bureau for European and Eurasian Affairs twitted.

"It is unfortunate the Russian co-chair did not accept the invitation. We look forward to the Minsk Group continuing work," the tweet said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a June 24 joint press conference with his Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov in Baku that the OSCE Minsk Group (created to help Armenia and Azerbaijan forge out a peaceful resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict) 'had wound down its activities at the initiative of the US and France.'

Earlier, on April 8, Lavrov said in Moscow that "In a Russophobic frenzy and in an effort to cancel anything and everything concerning Russia, our so-called French and American partners in the Minsk Group have also canceled its co-chairmanship, saying they will not communicate with us in this format. It is their right, if they are ready to sacrifice the interests of the Karabakh settlement, if they are ready to sacrifice the interests of the Armenian side."

The next day the French Foreign Ministry issued a statement on its role in the OSCE Minsk Group, saying that "work continues with Armenia and Azerbaijan to achieve progress on humanitarian issues, to support border demarcation, to unblock the region, to preserve the cutural heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh, to conclude a peace treaty between the two countries and to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.'

In a related development the State Department said the U.S. stands ready to support Armenia and Azerbaijan in these initiatives, including through 'our capabilities within the OSCE Minsk Group." -0-