The presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan failed on Friday to agree a framework document which would have set the stage for a resolution of their two-decade conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, according to Reuters. Azeri President Ilham Aliyev and Armenia's Serzh Sarksyan held talks in Russia on Nagorno-Karabakh, which Armenian-backed forces wrested from Azeri control in a deadliest war to break out as the Soviet Union splintered apart two decades ago. The two presidents and their Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev said in a statement after the talks that the sides "confirmed reaching a mutual understanding on a range of issues whose resolution will help create conditions for an approval of the Basic Principles". The Basic Principles is 14-point framework document that would set the stage for talks on a peace settlement.
