Azerbaijan, Baku, June 9 / Trend M. Aliyev /
Relations between Azerbaijan and the U.S are not as good as they could be, the U.S analytic center Stratfor president, professor George Friedman said.
"The U.S. is concerned about many other issues. It has no opportunity to deal with this issue thoroughly [the issue of Azerbaijan-U.S relations]. But the United States is grateful to Azerbaijan for assistance in Iraq and Afghanistan. The U.S. will attach greater importance to the regional issues that are important for Azerbaijan in future," he told media in Baku.
He said that the U.S. does not pay enough attention to the U.S-Azerbaijan relations, as it is engaged in such issues as the crisis between Turkey and Israel, Iran, Afghanistan. But the United States does not forget about its real partner.
Answering the question about the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Friedman said that the U.S. does not clearly understand the situation with the occupied Azerbaijani territories and Nagorno-Karabakh.
"Unfortunately, the U.S. also can not fully appreciate the importance of Azerbaijan", he said.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan since 1992, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and 7 surrounding districts. Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994.
The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group - Russia, France, and the U.S. - are currently holding the peace negotiations.
Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council's resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh region and the occupied territories.