Azerbaijan, Baku, June 3 /Trend, E.Tariverdiyeva/
The U.S. hopes that the Kazan meeting of the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia will lead the parties to resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the U.S. ambassador to Azerbaijan Matthew Bryza told journalists in Baku on Friday.
"The presidents of the co-chair countries already in Deauville statement let know what they expect from the meeting in Kazan. The statement noted that the conflict should be resolved peacefully, the military option is not acceptable here," said the ambassador.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan will meet in Kazan in late June. This will be the ninth tripartite meeting between the presidents of Azerbaijan, Russia and Armenia.
The meeting held in Sochi on March 5 was the eighth tripartite meeting of the Presidents of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russia. Astrakhan hosted the seventh trilateral meeting of the presidents of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russia - Ilham Aliyev, Dmitry Medvedev and Serzh Sargsyan on Oct. 27. The parties signed a declaration envisaging the return of POWs. It is of humanitarian nature.
On May 26, the presidents of the Minsk Group co-chairing countries made a joint statement on Nagorno-Karabakh conflict at the G8 summit in Deauville, France.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, U.S President Barack Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy called on the Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders to demonstrate the political will and to finalize the work over the basic principles of [the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict] during the upcoming Armenian-Azerbaijani summit in June.
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 four resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.