Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

Israeli ambassador to Baku called for peaceful settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Rafael Harpaz said the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict should be solved in a peaceful method.

“When it comes to the conflict here, we really hope and believe that it should be solved peacefully. What I am saying is based on our experience in our region,” he said on January 6.

Harpaz further said the peaceful solution is the best solution and is very important, adding that Israel supports the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group.

He noted that generally speaking everyone wants the conflicts to be over, but when looking to the history, it is obvious that this doesn’t happen as fast as one would like.

“We recognize the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. This is our position. It was stated again and again by our foreign minister, by our president,” Harpaz said.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict emerged in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Since a lengthy war in the early 1990s that displaced over one million Azerbaijanis, Armenian armed forces have occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions.

The UN Security Council's four resolutions on Armenian withdrawal have not been enforced to this day.

Peace talks, mediated by Russia, France and the U.S. through the OSCE Minsk Group, are underway on the basis of a peace outline proposed by the Minsk Group co-chairs and dubbed the Madrid Principles. The negotiations have been largely fruitless so far.

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Sara Rajabova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @SaraRajabova

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