Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Friday accused Armenia of dragging its feet over a peace deal with Azerbaijan while repeating his preconditions for its signing.
“Armenia is not interested in a peace treaty and lasting peace in the region,” he reportedly told visiting Turkish parliamentarians. “Armenia is deliberately stalling for time, buying new weapons from France and other Western countries, conducting military exercises with third parties on its territory.”
Both Baku and Yerevan have reported significant progress towards the treaty during their negotiations. But Armenian Foreign Minister Mirzoyan has repeatedly lamented the lack of a “positive reaction” from Baku to an Armenian proposal to finalize and sign the treaty within a month.
Aliyev has made that conditional on a change of Armenia’s constitution which he says contains territorial claims to Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijani leader reaffirmed that stance on Friday. The Armenian Foreign Ministry rejected this precondition in June, accusing Aliyev of torpedoing the peace process.
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Aliyev indicated afterwards that even if Yerevan meets his demands Baku will not be in a rush to sign the peace deal. He suggested that the two sides first work out the basic principles of the deal and sign the whole document at a later date.
Earlier in June, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken reportedly told Aliyev that the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict should be settled “without delay.” Blinken hosted fresh talks between the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers in Washington in July. They reported no breakthrough towards a settlement.
A U.S. State Department spokesman said Washington is pressing both sides to “make some difficult choices and tough compromises” needed for an agreement. He did not elaborate.