Armenia has received an invitation from Iran for a foreign ministerial-level meeting in 3+3 format (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Russia, Turkey, Iran), Deputy Foreign Minister Vahan Kostanyan told reporters.
“As you know, the possible meeting is to take place in Tehran and we’ve received an invitation from the Iranian side. At this moment discussions are taking place with our colleagues from Iran, and when a final decision is made, we will announce it,” Kostanyan said.
Constant attempts by Azerbaijan to change the format of the talks with Armenia lead to suspicions whether Baku is actually interested in finalizing the peace process, Kostanyan told reporters.
“Basically, the constant change of formats causes serious doubts on whether or not official Baku is interested in finalizing the peace process at all, or whether they are simply trying to switch formats and thereby avoid making concrete agreements,” Kostanyan said.
Asked on the issue of organizing a meeting in Georgia, which Baku had suggested, Kostanyan said that there is no such agreement at this moment.
Armenia is ready to participate in the meeting scheduled to take place in the end of October in Brussels, Kostanyan said.
Armenia wants to normalize relations with its neighbors. He said that the format of the talks isn’t what matters.
“What’s important to us is to be able to normalize relations. And for the written agreements reached after that normalization to be respected, and that our colleagues guarantee that the Azeri side won’t violate it,” he said.
The statement adopted in Granada, Spain announced the guidelines that Armenia believes should be included in the peace treaty, or the agreement on the normalization of relations, and the work in this regard will continue, Kostanyan said.
He said that Armenia has received the proposals of the Azerbaijani side.
"We have not submitted a new written proposal yet, we are in discussions, while preparing the response package, we are waiting for the Azerbaijani side to publicly take a position on the Granada statement and raise whether these guidelines are acceptable for them," said the Armenian deputy FM.
To the question whether the date of the next meeting between the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Brussels is already known, Kostanyan responded: "In order to have a clear date for the Brussels meeting, I believe it is necessary for Azerbaijan to first confirm its participation, after which we will be able to specify a date."
As for which proposals of Armenia Azerbaijan has a problem with in the peace treaty, the Armenian official said: "I suppose it would be more correct to wait for Azerbaijan's response to the guidelines recorded in the Granada statement. After that, it will be possible to talk about the general settlement prospects."
