YEREVAN. – One should not rule out the likelihood of hostilities in the Nagorno-Karabakh  conflict zone, expert Karen Kocharyan said at a press conference on Thursday adding the OSCE Minsk Group is authorized to prevent wide-scale military actions.

Kocharyan did not rule out that diversion operations by the Azerbaijani side are targeted at resuming war.

“If anyway war resumes, we are ready to it, as we have quite efficient army. Nothing should be ruled out, besides, I believe that it is linked to the tension in the region. If we take into account the situation around Iran and Syria, it is natural that Armenia cannot be out in focus,” he said.

Regarding the U.S. Secretary of State Clinton’s statement in Baku that the Armenian and Azerbaijani FMs will be offered new approaches on settlement of the Karabakh conflict in the upcoming Paris meeting, Kocharyan said that those new offers had been made already for 20 years, while no progress has been reached. The only thing the mediators have achieved is maintenance of status-quo.