Iranian cleric slams OSCE Minsk group over Karabakh hostilities

A senior Iranian cleric has criticised what he called the OSCE Minsk group's inaction during the recent flare-up of hostilities over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh (Nagornyy Karabakh) region, Ardabil provincial TV reported on 8 May.


The Supreme Leader's representative in the province and Friday Imam of Ardabil, Ayatollah Ameli, said that the Minsk OSCE Minsk members (representing the USA, France and Russia) cared only for their interests and only verbally supported Azerbaijan in its attempts to retake Nagorno-Karabakh, the channel quoted Ameli as saying at a meeting with an Azerbaijani delegation made up of politicians and MPs.


Ameli said words without actions would be of no benefit for Azerbaijan. He also said the West and USA always sought to create division among Muslim nations. This time too they nourish "evil plans" for Karabakh, the channel quoted Ameli as saying.


He also expanded on friendly ties between Iran and Azerbaijan, stressing that Iran always supported Azerbaijani people and sheltered more than 70,000 refugees after the Karabakh war that broke out in the early 1990s.


Azerbaijan and Yerevan are locked in a conflict over Azerbaijan's breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh, which, along with seven surrounding districts, came under the control of ethnic Armenians in the early 1990s. The ceasefire agreement reached in 1994 is often said violated by both sides. The latest escalation in early April left dozens of soldiers killed from both sides.

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