UN assembly tells Armenia to get out of Azerbaijan
By Louis Charbonneau
UNITED NATIONS, March 14 (Reuters) - The U.N. General Assembly on Friday demanded that Armenian forces withdraw from all occupied territories in Azerbaijan, but key mediators in the Azeri-Armenia dispute rejected the non-binding resolution.
In an Azeri-drafted resolution, the assembly called for "the immediate, complete and unconditional withdrawal from all the occupied territories of the Republic of Azerbaijan."
Although the largely symbolic resolution was adopted, only 39 out of 192 members of the U.N. General Assembly voted for it. Seven countries, including Armenia, the United States, France and Russia, voted against it.
There were 100 abstentions and many other countries chose not to participate in the vote, which Western diplomats said was a reflection of the fact that most people felt the Azeri resolution was not a balanced picture of the problem.
"This resolution was not helpful," said a diplomat from one of the three co-chairs of the Minsk Group -- Russia, the United States and France.
The Minsk Group is a committee of countries working to bring about a peaceful resolution of the disagreement over Nagorno-Karabakh, the disputed Caucasus mountain enclave. The group was established by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in 1992.
A U.S. statement on the resolution said the three Minsk Group co-chairs all voted against the resolution because they agreed it represented a "unilateral" view of the dispute.
European Union president Slovenia issued a statement that said the Minsk Group should continue to deal with the issue.
"The EU calls on the parties concerned to avoid any actions which could lead to heightened tensions and which could undermine the ongoing mediation efforts," it said.
Last week Azeri President Ilham Aliyev said Kosovo's newly declared independence from Serbia had emboldened Armenian separatists in Azerbaijan's mountainous enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Both Armenia and Azerbaijan have accused each other of stoking the recent violence there. (Editing by Eric Walsh)
