Azerbaijan is Not Among US Priorities, and War is Not Solution to Karabakh Issue: STRATFOR

A round table focusing on the US foreign policy was organized at the Strategic Research Center under the President of Azerbaijan on Thursday attended also by Chief Executive of STRATFOR global intelligence company, Prof. George Friedman.

According to Azerbaijani news website APA Friedman said the United States was not always having concrete position and strategy on a number of issues. Regarding the US policy towards the South Caucasus, Freidman said “this policy depended on the policy of Russia, Iran and Turkey.

“The United States has no concrete position on a number of issues. The country has not come out of the shock caused by the September 11 events. US didn’t interfere in the Russian-Georgian conflict in 2008 because the conflict was developing rapidly and the United States didn’t have a chance to interfere. Besides it was engaged in the problems of Iraq, Afghanistan and other problems. The situation in the region is dynamically changing and the conflict in Georgia may find its solution in 2012-2014,” said he.

Further Freidman said Azerbaijan was not among the important priorities of the United States and relations between the two countries could be established on better basis. “To solve the Nagorno Karabakh conflict,” in his words Azerbaijan “needs to wait for changing of Armenia’s foreign policy or full freezing of the conflict.”

“The war is not a solution to the conflict. It would be better to think about the impact of this issue on the international community. Is there any use in the risk or use of force? It needs to make decision because the war could lead to unexpected results.”

George Freidman founded STRATFOR in 1996. The firm collects and analyses materials about the world developments and makes economic and political forecasts. Freidman is one of the influential political scientists of the United States. He has authored several books, including The Next 100 Years, America’s Secret War, The Intelligence Edge, and The Future of War.