MOSCOW. Jan 21 (Interfax) - Moscow and the other chair countries of the OSCE Minsk Group are prepared to put forward new proposals regarding the Karabakh peace process but Baku and Yerevan have the last say, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
"We are encouraging both sides together with the Americans and the French and we are ready to suggest certain ideas for Baku's and Yerevan's consideration but they have the final say," Lavrov said at a press conference in Moscow on Tuesday.
"Some ideas of the OSCE Minsk Group cochairmen are being negotiated and submitted to the OSCE," he noted.
"The sides do not reject these ideas but there is a need for additional efforts, which will lead to principled agreements on ways of the resolution of this regional problem. We will assist in doing so," Lavrov remarked.
"The most important is [to achieve] the sides' consent with the principles, which will lay down the settlement foundation. We cannot do this work on their behalf," the minister added.
He described the dialogue the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan held in Vienna last November as inspiring.
"The Sargsian-Aliyev meeting is somewhat inspiring, especially as there were no such contacts in the two previous years. As far as understand from contacts with the Armenian and Azeri friends, the presidents were generally satisfied with their conversation and agreed to carry on the dialogue at the level of foreign ministers and to bear in mind the continuation of [their] personal dialogue," Lavrov said.
He told the media he did not possess information about "the office of the Karabakh Republic" at the Armenian Embassy in Moscow.
"There have been periodical rumors that some embassies allegedly rent apartments or open a restaurant on their premises in violation of the Vienna Convention. I simply do not know such things. I assume everyone must abide by the Vienna Convention," Lavrov said.