Rocket Fire Destroys Fragile Truce in Nagorno-Karabakh
BAKU, Azerbaijan — Rockets struck villages in Nagorno-Karabakh on Saturday, reports said, shattering the latest cease-fire in the disputed Caucasus region.
An Azerbaijani parliamentary leader, meanwhile, said his country was girding for a new Armenian offensive.
The renewed fighting came as U.N. envoy Cyrus R. Vance prepared to travel to Nagorno-Karabakh to try to mediate a truce in the mostly Armenian enclave controlled by Azerbaijan.
More than 1,000 people have died in four years of fighting there.
In another peace effort, the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe agreed Saturday to send a mission to the region. Czechoslovak Foreign Minister Jiri Dienstbier will lead the mission, said delegate Ivan Busniak.
Also, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati hosted talks Saturday in Tehran between the two sides, according to Iranian reports.
“We will witness a cease-fire in the region in the near future,†Velayati said, according to official Iranian media.
The former Soviet republics of Russia and Kazakhstan, as well as Turkey, France and Britain, have all tried unsuccessfully to stop the Armenian-Azerbaijani fighting.
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