Zarif, Lavrov reiterate diplomatic settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict

Moscow, Oct 6, IRNA – Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in a telephone conversation for the second time this week stressed the need to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict through diplomatic and political means. According to a statement by the Russian Foreign Ministry, they expressed concern over the unprecedented escalation of tensions in the Nagorno-Karabakh zone. The two officials warned about the danger of engagement of radical militants from illegal armed groups in Syria and Libya in the conflict. They also stressed the use of diplomatic and political means to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, saying that that the beginning of the process is the cessation of military action and establishment of an unconditional ceasefire. The two ministers reaffirmed the important role that the neighboring countries of Armenia and Azerbaijan Republic can play in this regard. Lavrov noted that Russia is working both at the national level and in the form of the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to establish immediate peace in the region (Nagorno-Karabakh). Armenia and Azerbaijan resumed clashes on the border between the two countries last Sunday (September 27) blaming each other for the violence. Nagorno-Karabakh has been a bone of contention between the two countries over the past decades. In 1994, following four years of military conflict between the two countries, some European and regional governments stepped in to end the territorial dispute between Baku and Yerevan, and a ceasefire was finally established through the mediation of the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). But international efforts to resolve the conflict peacefully have so far been unsuccessful.