The time has come for agreement on the basic principles of a settlement to the Karabakh conflict, the US envoy to Azerbaijan, Matthew Bryza, has said.
"The Deauville statement of Presidents Barack Obama of the US, Dmitriy Medvedev of Russia and Nicolas Sarkozy of France is the right statement for establishing stability in the region. The time has come to agree on the basic principles of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution," Bryza told journalists in the southern town of Lankaran on Tuesday.
He said the basic principles could be the basis of an agreement even in the absence of a final peace deal, Trend news agency reported.
Presidents Obama, Medvedev and Sarkozy, whose countries co-chair the OSCE Minsk Group, the international body seeking a settlement to the Karabakh conflict, issued the statement on the sidelines of the G8 summit in Deauville, Normandy.
They called on the Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders to demonstrate political will and finalize the basic principles for a settlement at their summit in the Russian city of Kazan on 26 June.
"Further delay would only call into question the commitment of the sides to reach an agreement," the Deauville statement says.
Azerbaijani officials said that the Deauville statement's call for progress on peace was targeted at Armenia, which they said was delaying a peace deal on Karabakh, while Armenian officials said the statement was targeted at Azerbaijan.
The OSCE mediators have for some time been urging Azerbaijan and Armenia to adopt the basic principles for a peace deal.
The principles include Armenia's return of the territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijani control, an interim status for Karabakh providing guarantees of security and self-governance and the future determination of the final legal status of Nagorno-Karabakh through a legally binding expression of will.
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