Azerbaijan, Armenia Agree Karabakh Truce

Local Editor

Azerbaijan and Armenia took a step back from the brink of open war on Monday as their presidents agreed to respect a ceasefire in the disputed region of Nagorny Karabakh.

In their first encounter since fierce fighting erupted last month, Azerbaijan's Ilham Aliyev and his Armenia's Serzh Sarkisian also agreed to renewed peace talks in June.

The deal was also a rare joint diplomatic victory for the United States and Russia, one day before the rival great powers were to co-chair crisis talks on Syria.

The leaders of the bitter Caucasus rivals were summoned to Vienna by the "Minsk Group" -- Moscow, Washington and Paris -- after the worst ceasefire breach in two decades.

Fighting erupted in Nagorny Karabakh in early April, killing at least 110 people and wounding scores more.

After meeting US Secretary of State John Kerry, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and France's Minister for Europe Harlem Desir, the parties issued a joint statement.

"They reiterated that there can be no military solution to the conflict," said the statement, released to reporters by the Minsk Group delegations.

"The presidents reiterated their commitment to the ceasefire and the peaceful settlement of the conflict.

"The presidents agreed on a next round of talks, to be held in June at a place to be mutually agreed, with an aim to resuming negotiations on a comprehensive settlement."

The parties also agreed to beef up the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe [OSCE] ceasefire monitoring mission which presently has only six observers.

The Armenian presidency confirmed the agreement in a statement and, according to Russian news agencies, Lavrov welcomed the deal, saying: "Compromise is always possible."

Russia, France and the United States hosted the talks in Vienna, the night before a similar crisis meeting of the 17-nation International Syria Support Group.

Before the Armenia-Azerbaijan talks, a senior US official said that a deal was possible because -- unlike in the case of Syria -- Moscow and Washington were in agreement.

"This is a solvable conflict, there are some conflicts out there that simply have to be managed. But this is one that can be solved," a senior US official told reporters.

"This is an issue where we see eye-to-eye with the Russians. We have no differences of opinion."

The crisis has long festered, with dozens killed every year, but April's fighting was the worst since a 1994 ceasefire turned it into one of Europe's frozen conflicts.

Azerbaijan and Armenia have feuded over Nagorny Karabakh since Armenian separatists seized the landlocked territory in a war that claimed some 30,000 lives in the early 1990s.

With peace efforts stuttering to a halt in recent years, both sides in the conflict began rearming heavily, with energy-rich Azerbaijan spending vast sums on new weaponry.

And yet, despite increasingly feverish rhetoric from the rivals, the recent flare-up still appeared to catch the international community by surprise.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team