Garabagh: US take over initiative

Will the meeting follow suit of Camp David talks?

The White House has invited Presidents Aliyev and Kocharian to the USA to hold talks over Garabagh settlement. A statement released by the US Department of State on March 14 indicates the place and time of the meeting: the historic event has been scheduled for April 3 at the small White House named after Harry Truman in Key West city, Florida.

The statement says that the meeting would serve as continuation of the talks held on the initiative of French President Jacques Chirac on March 4-5.

The Department of State hopes that the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs from the USA, Russia and France would stay in permanent touch with presidents of the two parties to the conflict and do their utmost for a final resolution of the dispute.

The statement also indicates that the US thinks that the non-resolution of the problem is the main obstacle in the way of stability and prosperity of this important region.

The talks are expected to be extremely tense. They may even be final, according to the US co-chair in the Minsk Group Carry Cavanaugh. He added that around 100 diplomats would be involved in the negotiations.*