(Baku) Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev estimated on Wednesday that the “conditions” for the signing of a peace treaty with Armenia, a neighbor and major adversary, had been “created”, assuring that he did not want a “new war “.
“The most important thing today is that real conditions have been created for the signing of a peace treaty,” he said in a television interview.
“This is why we must actively work on the text,” added the leader.
Observers, however, remain cautious about the progress of the talks, as there are so many disagreements between the two Caucasian countries.
Azerbaijan and Armenia fought two wars, in the 1990s and in 2020, over the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, finally reconquered in September by Baku’s forces.
In December, the two countries carried out an exchange of prisoners seen as a diplomatic breakthrough, and which revived hopes for peace. But tensions remain high and armed incidents still regularly take place at the border.
Ilham Aliev, however, said he was “certain that there will be no new war” with Armenia.
“I will do everything in my power to prevent it. Enough, enough of the wars,” he added.
However, he accused France, with which relations are worsening, of being “at the origin of the deterioration of the situation in the Caucasus”.
The Azerbaijani president, who criticizes Paris for its support for Yerevan, once again affirmed that the country is “preparing (Armenia) for a new war” by providing it with weapons.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry called on France to stop all “interference” in its internal affairs, after the arrest of a Frenchman accused of espionage by Baku, which was denounced by Paris as “arbitrary” .