Azerbaijan: French arms to Armenia could trigger new conflict in region

Azerbaijan's president has rebuked the European Union and warned that France's decision to send military aid to Armenia could trigger a new conflict in the South Caucasus after a lightning Azerbaijani military operation helped Baku regain total control of Karabakh last month.

Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev last week pulled out of an EU-brokered meeting with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan at which Brussels said it was standing by Armenia.

But Aliyev criticised the EU's approach — and particularly France's position — when European Council, Charles Michel, telephoned him, according to an Azerbaijani statement issued late on Saturday.

President Aliyev said "that due to the well-known position of France, Azerbaijan did not participate in the meeting in Granada", the Azerbaijani presidential office said.

During the telephone conversation, Aliyev said that “including Azerbaijan in the quadrilateral statement without the participation of Azerbaijan in Granada was not the right approach”.

“The provision of weapons by France to Armenia was an approach that was not serving peace, but one intended to inflate a new conflict, and if any new conflict occurs in the region, France would be responsible for causing it,” said Aliyev.

“The anti-Azerbaijani statement adopted by the European Parliament on the basis of a xenophobic and chauvinistic approach and the opinions expressed in it were unacceptable, adding that this did not serve peace and stability in the region,” he said.

Michel expressed the bloc’s commitment to the Armenian-Azerbaijani normalisation process ahead of a trilateral meeting in Brussels.