Our main priority is to exclude any use of force in Karabakh: Lavrov

Any document adopted in relation to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict underlines the necessity of solving the issue exclusively in a peaceful way, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with Armenian TV program Realpolitik, asked what steps Russia is ready to take over the Karabakh issue given Azerbaijan's non-stop war rhetoric.

"I want to stress that any document in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement process adopted this way or another, underlines the necessity of solving the issue exclusively in a peaceful way which is shared by the Russian side, by the [OSCE] co-chairpersons, OSCE and UN Security Council where the resolutions on NK conflict were once discussed," said Mr Lavrov.

Further Russian FM said that the provision is fixed also in the Maindorf Declaration signed between Armenian, Azerbaijani and Russian presidents one and a half year ago.

"For that reason the peaceful resolution of this conflict, the impermissibility for any incident involving force is the main priority of all our efforts. And the fact that the conflict [war] was possible to stop in the mid 90s and a political process to start, was itself a great achievement. Of course we would all like that political process to be over as soon as possible; especially given a lot of work has in that framework been done. But as it is always the case, we have to seek agreements, which, I am saying it again, would be acceptable for all the conflicting parties, otherwise the settlement will fail," said Sergei Lavrov.