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Armenia–Azerbaijan conflict

Lavrov says US, France nursing ‘wounded pride’ over Moscow-brokered Karabakh peace deal

It was "unethical" to promote claims in the situation when every minute could mean somebody’s life, Russia's top diplomat said

© Russian Foreign Ministry Press Office/TASS

MOSCOW, November 19/TASS/. The US and France have been stricken with ‘wounded pride’ over the Moscow brokered Nagorno-Karabakh armistice, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Thursday.

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"In my contacts with American and French colleagues, as well as in contacts between President [Emmanuel] Macron and President [Vladimir] Putin on the Nagorno-Karabakh issue over the past few days, clearly there is wounded pride. And this is sad," Lavrov said in an interview with RT television on Thursday.

Lavrov said that during his recent contacts with his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian, he had drawn his attention to the importance of guaranteeing the safety of local residents. "I tried to explain it to him that our concern is that people stay alive, that they don’t flee their homes and that the number of refugees and displaced persons does not run into huge amounts," he elaborated.

It was "inappropriate and unethical from the standpoint of basic human ethics" to promote claims in the situation when every minute could mean somebody’s life, Lavrov stressed.

On November 9, Russian President Vladimir Putin, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan signed a joint statement on a full ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh. As the Russian leader said, Azerbaijani and Armenian forces will maintain the positions that they have held, while Russian peacekeepers will be deployed to the region.

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