The OSCE Minsk Group could impose an arms embargo - deputy foreign minister
The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing states have enough capacities to impose an arms embargo in the conflict zones, Armenia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan told reporters at a briefing on Wednesday, when asked to comment Russian President Vladimir Putin’s warning the United States against supplying defensive weapons to Ukraine that would further fuel the conflict.
Asked whether Russia’s arms sale to Azerbaijan is an indication of the country’s reluctance to establish peace in the Karabakh conflict, the deputy minister said: “There was a time when the Russian side used to argue if not them other states would sell weapons. Once I put forward an idea that the co-chairing states [of the Minsk Group] have enough capacity and opportunity as permanent members of the UN Security Council to impose a general arms embargo in conflict zones, in particular at the Karabakh conflict zone. It would be a solution to the matter, ruling out any possibility for justifications, such as ‘if not us others would supply’.”
While acknowledging the certain difficulties to reach the respective decision at the Security Council, Kocharyan, however, didn’t’ deem it as impossibly once the all co-chairing countries are interested in it.