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U.S. Deputy Chief of Mission to Azerbaijan: â€œWe were not in any way trying to facilitate any movement on Leyla and Arifâ€™s part, it was just a very simple meetingâ€

01 May 2014 14:01 (UTC +04:00)

After the request of Leyla Yunus and Arif Yunusov, that we meet, I agreed to meet them. Of course we are following the situation very very closely. We have known Leyla and Arif for many years, the U.S. Embassy, and generally our practices when people ask us to meet with them from all sectors of government and civil societies etc. we generally agree,” said U.S. Embassy Charge d’Affairs Dereck Hogan, APA reports.

“I should clarify that we were not in any way trying to facilitate any movement on their part, it was just a very very simple meeting”, the diplomat said.

Hogan said that as U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan Richard Morningstar stated in his remarks at the US-Azerbaijan conference in Washington D.C yesterday, we are troubled, the United States is troubled, by the detention of Rauf Mirgadirov, Leyla and Arif, because of really what that means to people-to-people diplomacy between Azerbaijan and Armenia. We think that is very important to prepare the ground for an eventual peace settlement.