Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, in an exclusive interview with France 24 said his country was ready to “work on a future peace agreement” with Armenia.
Aliyev praised the first meeting between the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia last week in New York, which was a "good indicator" that dialogue could be restarted and a peaceful solution sought.
He said he was ready to enter peace negotiations and added that if the OSCE Minsk Group of mediators (France, the US and Russia) set up a meeting with Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan, he would have no objections.
He claimed the Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) conflict between the two countries had been "resolved". Aliyev also denied that he had any additional territorial claims on Armenia.
Aliyev rejected claims by Human Rights Watch that his country was holding and torturing Armenian prisoners of war, claiming they had all been freed.
The President also strongly denied that he had sent operatives to attack Mahammad Mirzali, a Azerbaijani blogger who is a refugee in France and who was badly injured in a stabbing in March.
