Azerbaijan says France laying ground for new regional war by arming Armenia

FILE PHOTO: Hikmet Hajiyev, foreign policy adviser to Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev and Vaqif Sadiqov, Ambassador of the Republic of Azerbaijan to Belgium and Luxembourg and Head of Mission to EU talk to reporters in Brussels, Belgium September 26, 2023. REUTERS/Bart Biesemans/File Photo

BAKU (Reuters) - Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev accused France on Tuesday of creating conditions for a new war in the South Caucasus by supplying arms to Armenia.

Aliyev used a speech at a conference on decolonisation in Baku to deliver a scathing broadside against France, which said last month it had agreed new contracts to supply military equipment to Armenia.