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U.S. Envoy Says Armenia, Azerbaijan 'Closer Than They Think' On Nagorno-Karabakh

March 20, 2012

by RFE/RL

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Ambassador Robert Bradtke says Armenia and Azerbaijan are "probably closer to an agreement than they think" in the longstanding dispute over the status of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Bradtke, the U.S. co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, which seeks to facilitate resolution of the dispute over the breakaway Azerbaijani territory populated almost exclusively by ethnic Armenians, was speaking in an interview with RFE/RL in Washington.

The Minsk Group, which is also led by Russian and French co-chairs, will mark its 20th anniversary on March 24.

It has helped to maintain an uneasy cease-fire between Baku and Yerevan since a three-year war in the early 1990s but has failed to produce a diplomatic breakthrough.

Bradtke said the group has helped the sides move closer to agreeing basic principles for solving the conflict but that their mistrust and lack of cooperation have impeded progress.

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/us_envoy_bradtke_armenia_azerbaijan_nagorno_karabakh/24522278.html

Copyright (c) 2012. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.