YEREVAN. – The next talk between the Armenian and the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministers Edward Nalbandian and Elmar Mammadyarov, and which is expected in the second half of January, will not make considerable progress in the process to settle the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Russian and Western analysts have told 168 Zham (Hour) newspaper of Armenia.

‘“In all likelihood, the meeting will not end with any breakthrough; there are no prerequisites for breakthrough. The foreign minister of Armenia uses desperate words, whereas the Azerbaijani side does not change its bellicose rhetoric. If the [OSCE Minsk Group] mediators can reach agreement on the introduction of mechanisms [to investigate border incidents], it will be the biggest achievement this year,’ said the American diplomat Paul Goble.

“In Russian political scientist Alexander Skakov’s view, Russia and the US currently are not intensively engaged in the Karabakh conflict; and that is why the conflict is not resolved and casualties are recorded at the border.

“British analyst Neil MacFarlane, for his part, finds that the Karabakh conflict is a conflict that cannot be resolved, or breakthrough is achieved, with one ministerial meeting, in the case when the arrangements reached during the [Armenia-Azerbaijan] presidential meetings are disregarded,” wrote 168 Zham.