From: Justin Burke (JBurke@sorosny.org)
Date: Thu Aug 30 2001 - 10:41:12 EDT
Paper sees changes imminent in US policy towards Armenia
US Under-Secretary of State Elizabeth Jones has made it clear during a visit
to Armenia that the USA opposes the project to build a gas pipeline linking
Iran and Armenia. The Armenian newspaper Ayots Ashkar said this was one of
several comments made by Jones during a visit to Yerevan which suggest that
there may be changes in the new US administration's policy towards Armenia.
It also said that Jones had ruled out the possibility of Nagornyy Karabakh
being directly involved in the Karabakh peace negotiations, saying that
Azerbaijan and Armenia are holding talks. The following is the text of a
Vaan Vardanyan report by Armenian newspaper Ayots Ashkar on 29 August
entitled "America will punish us":
US Under-Secretary of State Elizabeth Jones is in the Transcaucasus on an
official visit. Yesterday [28 August], after her meeting with Armenia's
foreign minister and prime minister, she held a meeting with President
Robert Kocharyan. A number of points stressed by Elizabeth Jones point to
the fact that certain changes will take place in the near future in the new
American administration's policy in the region, and in Armenia in
particular.
Yesterday the US Under-Secretary of State Elizabeth Jones did not hide her
country's negative attitude towards the project to build an Iran-Armenia
gas pipeline. She stressed that there was a law in the USA against
investments being made by the Iranian side. In this way she made it clear
to us that they did not welcome Armenia's cooperation with its neighbour.
It was tantamount to saying, if you want to be our friend, you should
distance yourself as much as possible from Iran.
Assessing her visit to the region as on the whole positive, Jones noted that
she was satisfied with the discussions held with Armenia's president, prime
minister and foreign minister "on all the questions which are very
important to the USA in Armenia". According to Mrs Jones, "these questions
concern regional problems, the Karabakh problem, of course, the problem of
security and problems of economic reforms. There are many cooperation
projects involving the USA and countries of the region." After giving a
positive assessment of the 10 years of independence of the Transcaucasus
countries, Mrs Jones said she saw serious achievements, especially in the
sphere of democracy and economic reforms.
She responded to a question about how the attitude of the new US
administration towards Armenia would differ from that of its predecessor by
saying that there would be continuity. Nevertheless: "Certain changes may
take place, but the main support being given to resolution of the Karabakh
issue will remain the same."
Undoubtedly they also touched on the Armenian-Turkish Reconciliation
Commission. To what extent was the US State Department supporting this? Mrs
Jones denied her department's participation, saying that "this is only an
individual initiative". At the same time she said that the USA would always
support initiatives directed towards the establishment of mutual
understanding. It is quite clear where the head of this dog is buried.
Mrs Jones expressed a number of optimistic views, the essence of which were
that the Minsk Group had been working well. She explained in the following
way the fact that Carey Cavanaugh is being replaced in the OSCE Minsk
Group: "Ambassador Cavanaugh is an excellent employee, but like all
excellent employees, he should do other things. He will be replaced by
another good ambassador and there will be no change in our future activity
and in the Minsk Group's activity."
During his meeting with Mrs Jones in Baku, Azerbaijan's president announced
that it would be possible to settle the conflict if the territorial
integrity of Azerbaijan was respected. When asked whether such a position
could become an obstacle to settlement of the conflict, Mrs Jones gave
another diplomatic answer: "I think great progress was observed in Key West
regarding settlement of the Karabakh conflict. Without going into details,
we have to leave everything to the parties to the conflict. The most
important thing is that this problem cannot be settled by means of war."
It also became clear that the USA does not regard Karabakh as a party to the
conflict any more. She said: "Discussions are going on between Armenia and
Azerbaijan." But we could remind her that till today, Azerbaijan and the
NKR [Nagornyy Karabakh Republic] were the main parties to the conflict. As
for Armenia, it is an indirect party to the conflict. That is why without
the final agreement of the NKR, this conflict simply cannot be settled.
Source: Ayots Ashkar, Yerevan, in Armenian 29 Aug 01 p 1
BBC Mon TCU 290801 ad/ah
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