Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran pleased with Karabakh ceasefire

Foreign ministers of Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran are satisfied with the ceasefire reached in the occupied Karabakh region between Azerbaijan and Armenia, said Russian foreign minister on Thursday, cited by a Russian news agency.

According to a report by Russia's state-run news agency, TASS, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's meeting with Azeri counterpart Elmar Mammadyarov and Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif focused on the Karabakh conflict.

"We could not bypass such a hot issue as the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh. We expressed satisfaction over the reached ceasefire…," said Lavrov.

"We have exerted efforts to help our close friends to attain this agreement which, hopefully, will be complied with and observed, including with taking into account the fact that there are known agreements that had been adopted back in the 1990s and that are related to the indefinite obligations concerning the ceasefire regime."

"Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev is in Yerevan today, and tomorrow he will be here – in Baku," said Lavrov, adding that the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, had direct talks with the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia.

"We think that today's situation requires that we take a closer look at the agreements made in the past, working out confidence-building measures on the contact line," he said.

Azeri Foreign Minister, Elmar Mammadyarov also said that "The agreements made in the past" caused the conflict in the region, adding that the status quo must be changed.

Preserving the current status quo in the conflict over Armenian-backed Karabakh is unacceptable because it will inevitably lead to escalating tension in the region, said Mammadyarov.

The conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia began in 1988, after Armenian territorial claims against Azerbaijan emerged. Since 1992 the Armenian Armed Forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.