A look at the Sochi meeting from the USA

Baku/02.11.22/Turan: Azerbaijani journalist living in the USA Alex Raufoglu, commented the reaction of the White House to the statements of the leaders of Azerbaijan, Russia and Armenia regarding the Sochi meeting, Putin's assessment of the Washington agreement preceding the Sochi meeting, Washington's reaction to Iran's behavior towards Azerbaijan and the recently adopted US National Security Strategy, in the  “Difficult question” program.

The US emphasized the importance of negotiations. However, the attitude towards the Sochi meeting was wary, he said. "Because the general idea was like this, this meeting can put an end to the agreements reached (in Brussels)," the journalist said, adding that the personality of the mediator, Vladimir Putin, was a source of concern.

At the same time, Raufoglu stressed that the United States believes that the parties to the conflict are closer than ever to resolving it. However, neither before nor after the Sochi meeting was seen in Washington as a chance for progress.

“As you know, the OSCE Minsk Group is actually inactive. It also had a period of active actions. Over the past few years, Russia has created a reality that even the United States had to reckon with. For example, Russia showed no interest in trilateral meetings of the co-chairs. Well, then the war started. Therefore, the Sochi meeting was not considered in Washington as an opportunity for progress,” Raufoglu said.

Nevertheless, according to the journalist, hopes for a peace agreement in the United States have not been lost. "According to US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, hopes for a peace agreement remain and that the State Department will continue to work with Baku and Yerevan to facilitate negotiations between Azerbaijan and Armenia," the journalist said.

Raufolgu stressed that the United States is well aware that there has always been competition between the mediators in this conflict. “Now we are actually back to 1993. Then, too, there was approximately the same situation, but only in a mirror image - then the winners were the Armenians and sought a package solution to the problem. Now Azerbaijan and Armenia have switched roles. But even then, there was competition between the intermediaries - between the East or the West,” the journalist said.--0--