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Political will is necessary to reach peace and accord for settling the Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) conflict, Armen Sargsyan said in an interview with TASS Russian news agency, shorty after assuming the office of the President of Armenia.

Mr Sargsyan deemed as very important the role of Russia in the Artsakh settlement process.

"For more than 25 years talks on the conflict settlement have been held in the format of the OSCE Minsk Group, on the basis of the settlement principles and elements suggested by the Co-Chairs - Russia, the US and France," the president told a correspondent of TASS. "Russia plays a key role in the process of the Karabakh settlement as a Co-Chair of the Minsk Group," he went on to say.

President Sargsyan stressed that "a three-party ceasefire in Karabakh was achieved 23 years ago exactly due to Russia’s mediation." "We highly value these mediation efforts in the search for a peaceful political solution to the problem," the president added. "It is obvious that political will to achieve peace and accord is necessary for the settlement of the problem. Armenia, for its part, is doing everything possible to achieve peace and expects the same moves from the Azerbaijani side," the Armenian leader said.

"Eventually, all regional conflicts find their settlement, they are quite surmountable," the president said. "History has seen conflicts no less cruel and dramatic," he added.