YEREVAN. – Last year appeared to be very dangerous for the settlement of the Karabakh issue and it is not excluded that the current year will be even more dangerous in terms of the possibility of using more serious arms at the line of contact, British journalist, senior fellow with Carnegie Europe Thomas de Waal stated at a press conference on Wednesday.

According to him, there is no alternative to the diplomatic solution of the Karabakh issue, as evidenced by the agreement reached in Vienna.

He also noted that the basis of the Vienna agreement was strengthening of the mandate on ceasefire, and it was the demand of both the Armenian and Azerbaijani authorities: “However, it did not work, the agreement was not signed. It is obvious that there were mistakes. It is necessary that one of the countries of the OSCE Minsk Group undertakes commitment to achieve the implementation of this agreement. Most likely, it should be the Russian side in the person of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Besides, it is necessary to strengthen the format of the OSCE Minsk Group, and the co-chairs, in turn, should revise the Vienna agreements if they do not want to see resumption of the conflict.”