YEREVAN. – According to Hraparak daily’s sources close to the US Embassy in Armenia, French President François Hollande’s recent visit to the region was, first and foremost, conditioned on the matter of the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the daily reported. 

“[Armenian President] Serzh Sargsyan has given his prior consent to Hollande’s proposal for a meeting with [Azerbaijani President Ilham] Aliyev in Paris. According to the same sources, Aliyev also agreed. After certain developments, however, [Azerbaijani FM Elmar] Mammadyarov made it clear to the French and the American sides [of the OSCE Minsk Group] that they agree [to the meeting solely] if there are new, specific proposals that benefit Azerbaijan [on the negotiating table].

“Hollande and the American side not only want to set up a meeting in Paris, but make the parties sign a ‘paper’ where the parties reaffirm their agreement to a peaceful resolution of the conflict. But this does not satisfy the Azerbaijani party, which is in serious games with the Russian side.

“‘That’s why the meeting [between the two presidents] is delayed this much; but it definitely will take place,’ our sources hoped,” Hraparak wrote.