PoliticsTop

Macron says France preparing a plane to repatriate journalists wounded in Karabakh

 Emmanuel Macron announced Thursday that France was preparing a plane to repatriate the two journalists from the daily Le Monde wounded in Nagorno-Karabakh.

“Before anything else, I’d like to say a few words of support for the two journalists – the journalist and the photographer – from the Le Monde newspaper who were injured a few hours ago in Nagorno-Karabakh, in the theatre of the conflict that broke out on Sunday.,” Macron said on his arrival at the European Council.

“I want to express here our full support for all the journalists from Le Monde and the families. The journalists are injured; since we’ve known this, the Quai d’Orsay’s crisis unit has been mobilized, as have all our resources, to organize the repatriation as quickly as possible,” he added.

“As I speak, a medical plane is ready to leave; we’re currently doing everything to stabilize the wounded people there before allowing them to be evacuated. We’ll obviously keep playing an active role on the issue with the journalists, our teams on the ground, the teams in Paris, Le Monde and the families,” President Macron said.

“Obviously this brings me to the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh. As we’ve already said, I had the opportunity to talk to Prime Minister Pashinyan and President Aliyev; we called for a ceasefire. The situation in the Nagorno-Karabakh region is serious, and we remain fully mobilized. I was able to discuss the issue with President Putin yesterday evening, and so a few minutes ago we – President Trump, President Putin and myself, in our capacity as the three Co-Chairs of the Minsk Group, responsible for monitoring the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh – published a joint communiqué,” he stated.

“We have demanded an unconditional ceasefire, also appealing to the reason of all those who sometimes push one party or another to go beyond what is reasonable. We’re extremely worried today; my thoughts obviously go to both the civilians and the soldiers who have died, and their families, and we’re going to do our utmost firstly to bring about a swift end to the conflict, and secondly to resume the path towards a peaceful settlement of this dispute,” he added.

“I’m going to be very clear: on Sunday, the strikes which, to our knowledge, came from Azerbaijan, were unjustified, and I asked President Aliyev about this. I also want to be very clear: we’ve got reliable information today indicating that Syrian fighters have left the theatre of operations, fighters from jihadist groups, passing through Gaziantep to join the theatre of operations in Nagorno-Karabakh. This is a very serious, new fact which also alters the scenario, and in the next few hours we’re going to talk about it here first at the European Council. President Trump, President Putin and I agreed to exchange all the information we have about this situation and act accordingly. At any rate, we’re mobilized as the Minsk Group; our action will be aimed at a return to normal, an unconditional ceasefire and a settlement of this dispute through negotiation and the law,” Macron concluded.

Show More
Back to top button