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Azerbaijani President: "I think that co- chairing countries should seriously think about what sanctions could be applied against the aggressor in order to make them leave the occupied lands"

30 October 2020 18:29 (UTC +04:00)

"I have been talking about it for a long time, but regrettably my calls remain unanswered. What sanctions could be applied? Sanctions that would make Armenia fulfill the UN Security Council resolutions and withdraw its troops from the occupied territories. For example, we could have a look at the sanctions that were imposed on Iraq after its occupation of Kuwait. Similar things took place from the point of view of international law. The internationally recognized territory of Kuwait was occupied by Iraq, war crimes were committed, ethnic cleansing occurred, and only the timely reaction of the international community helped stop this occupation. And that happened within a short period of time. Next, economic sanctions, an arms embargo were imposed on Iraq. Iraq became a no- fly zone. War criminals, who committed crimes against humanity, were brought to justice and sentenced," said President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev in response to the question Mr. President, you have repeatedly said that the mediators should apply sanctions against Armenia in order to secure a breakthrough in the settlement process. What might be at issue?in his interview with Russian Interfax agency on October 28, APA reports.

All these sanctions should be applied to Armenia. Even if one of these sanctions had been applied, I am sure the conflict would have been resolved long ago. There has simply been no political will and desire to apply these sanctions. And more likely the position that prevailed was that as long as there is no escalation, let's leave everything as it is.

"Although everyone understood that this cannot last forever. Everyone understood this 10 years ago. The presidents of Russia, the US and France made statements, and said clearly many times that the status quo was unacceptable.

Well, fine. We welcomed this, and I remember this was praised in our country, I commented on this. But what happened next? Then they began to depart from this thesis gradually, stopped voicing it and invented a new thesis that the status quo is unstable. And we can clearly understand that these are completely different things. So the co- chairing countries moved away even from a political attempt to exert pressure on Armenia. And it was common knowledge that the status quo was unstable. And recent events proved this.

This is why, let me repeat that again, it is not too late to apply sanctions in order to end the conflict as soon as possible. I think that co- chairing countries should seriously think about what sanctions could be applied against the aggressor in order to make them leave the occupied lands," said Azerbaijani President.