BAKU CRITICIZES YEREVAN FOR WITHDRAWAL FROM TALKS.

Azerbaijani foreign minister Hasan Hasanov sharply criticized Armenia forsuspending its participation in the OSCE-sponsored talks on Karabakh,Interfax reported May 24. Hasanov denied that Azerbaijanis had been behindthe explosion of a pipeline carrying gas to Armenia; he suggested theArmenians had staged this as a provocation. The same day, five more peopledied when two mines exploded in the Azeri-populated section of Georgia wherethe pipeline had been attacked.

US Gives Azerbaijan MFN.