Ambassador: France has done everything to undermine talks between Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders

The French have done everything to under talks between President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan, Azerbaijani Ambassador to the UK Elin Suleymanov told The Telegraph.

"They keep talking about protection of the sovereignty of Armenia, but we don’t have any claim against it. If the goal is to have Pashinyan and Aliyev talk to one another, the French have done everything to undermine it,” he said.

The ambassador to the UK said his country would return to the EU-mediated talks, as long as France and Germany are removed as brokers.

"Unfortunately, the French self-insertion of itself into the conversation has caused not a collapse, but certainly a hiccup,” Suleymanov said.

He believes that the French in a way ‘are projecting their own failures elsewhere.’

Suleymanov also denied allegations regarding Baku’s plans to ‘invade Armenia’, saying Azerbaijan was keen to sign a peace deal with Armenia including mutual recognition of one another’s territory.

"We have no territorial designs on anybody. We have no designs on any internationally recognized territory,” he said. "All we wanted was our territorial integrity.”

Suleymanov acknowledged that the Armenians of Karabakh would have been frightened by the conflict, but denied ethnic cleansing and noted that the Azerbaijani government actually wanted them to stay and "reintegrate” into Azerbaijan.





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