Armenia's prime minister said on Wednesday he saw no possibility of a diplomatic solution at this stage in the conflict with the Republic of Azerbaijan over the mountain enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Iran Press/ Asia: His comments increased doubts over a diplomatic initiative by major powers to bring peace to the South Caucasus region.

"We have to realize that the Karabakh question, at least at this stage and for a very long time, cannot have a diplomatic solution," Nikol Vovayi Pashinyan said.

"Everything that is diplomatically acceptable to the Armenian side...is not acceptable to the Republic of Azerbaijan anymore," he added.

Pashinyan had previously said that Armenia was ready for talks based on mutual concessions and a solution acceptable to all sides of the conflict.

The main condition of the Republic of Azerbaijan for ending the fighting is an Armenian withdrawal from Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenia rules this out and accuses the Azeri side of making a land grab.

Ilham Aliyev, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan said this month he believed there was a military solution to the conflict, while his aide Hikmet Hajiyev said on Wednesday that the Republic of Azerbaijan did not expect any breakthrough from the planned talks in Washington.

In the latest flare-up of the decades-old conflict, hundreds of people have been killed since Sept. 27 in clashes in and around Nagorno-Karabakh, which is part of the Republic of Azerbaijan but populated and controlled by ethnic Armenians.

The violence has raised fears of a wider war drawing in Turkey and Russia, which has a defense pact with Armenia and increased concern about the security of pipelines in the Republic of Azerbaijan that carry gas and oil to world markets.

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