Friday, March 1 2019 14:44

ArmInfo. The current new  situation presents new opportunities for the Nagorno-Karabakh  (Artsakh) conflict settlement, former U.S. Co- Chair of the OSCE  Minsk Group and Ambassador James Warlick said in an interview to  Voice of America's Armenian Service.

"It appears that Azerbaijani President Aliyev has accepted that there  are new opportunities. I believe under such conditions the co-chairs  are working on organizing an official summit between the leaders of  the two countries," Warlick noted.

Warlick, who is now a partner at Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev &  Partners, a major Russian law firm co- founded by Putin's close  friend and classmate Nikolai Egorov, in the U.S., does not share the  claims Moscow is not interested in the Karabakh conflict settlement.

"In my three years as a co-chair, I saw no facts of that. On the  contrary, working with the Russian government, I saw their interest  in the settlement process, which is logical. Russia is facing  numerous other challenges worldwide and wouldn't want an escalation  of the conflict between its long-time friends Armenia and Azerbaijan  close to its borders," he said.

Voice of America also recalled that earlier in February former U.S.  Co-Chair of the Minsk Group Richard Hoagland stressed there are some  Russian regions that have no interest in the full settlement of the  conflict out of fear that the Kremlin would lose its leverage on Baku  and Yerevan.

According to Warlick, the need to resolve the conflict which,  according to him, is becoming more dangerous rather than frozen  through the course of time."Do you think another generation wants to  live under these clouds? Of course not. And the same in Azerbaijan:  do you think the people in Azerbaijan want to leave with this issue  for another generation? Of course not," Warlick emphasized.

The principles of the Karabakh conflict are mostly unchanged and well  known, now included in the so- called "Lavrov program", which,  however, Warlick does not prefer calling after the Russian foreign  minister."These are not state secrets. The outlines of the settlement  have been discussed for many years and require bold steps from the  sides to move forward,"  Warlick summarized.