Baku, Azerbaijan, May 17
By Temkin Jafarov - Trend:
The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) can positively affect Nagorno-Karabakh conflict's settlement, Iran's Ambassador to Azerbaijan, Mohsen Pak Ayeen said.
The ambassador made these remarks in an interview with the Iranian Fars news agency.
"I believe that using Iran's political image in the region and its chairmanship at the NAM, it is possible to affect the provision of peace in the region and settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict," Pak Ayeen said.
The diplomat also stressed that over the past 20 years the OSCE Minsk Group has shown that is not interested in this conflict's settlement.
Pak Ayeen believes that by means of drawing up a road map and a larger plan, reflecting disagreements and conflict conditions, it is possible to reach an agreement between the parties and to settle the conflict along with the introduction of innovations in mediation efforts.
Iran has repeatedly said it is ready to act as a mediator in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict's settlement, if the parties want this.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan.
As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the U.S. are currently holding peace negotiations.
Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council's four resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.
The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) is an international organization brining together 120 countries on the principles of non-participation in military blocs.
The NAM was officially founded by 25 states at the Belgrade Conference in September 1961.
The movement's creation was preceded by the Bandung Conference (Indonesia) in 1955 and tripartite consultations among the presidents of Yugoslavia, Egypt and India in 1956.
Azerbaijan, which previously had an observer status at the NAM, became its full member at the XVI conference in 2011.