Meetings cancelled as ceasefire breaches continue

Scheduled for today, a meeting in Paris between the foreign ministers Elmar Mammedyarov of Azerbaijan and Vartan Oskanyan of Armenia has been cancelled because of Mr Oskanyan's illness, Azerbaijan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs says. A meeting between the two ministers had earlier been planned in Prague on 2 March, and the Azerbaijani minister had arrived in the Czech capital where in the past two days he held meetings with the Co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group and delegates of the Fact-Finding Mission to occupied regions of Azerbaijan.

"The two-day meetings may be called productive and for the benefit of Azerbaijan. We can say the facts submitted by the Azerbaijani authorities coincide with those published by the OSCE Mission," Azerbaijan's Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov said. He added the Mission's report would be presented to the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs and the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna on 16 March.

Meanwhile, Andrzej Kasprzyk, the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office on the Conflict Dealt with by the OSCE Minsk Conference, is concerned about recent frequent ceasefire violations along the Armenian-Azerbaijani frontline.