Azerbaijan says no to Armenian peace talks if Macron present

 Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev said Friday he would not meet the prime minister of arch-foe Armenia as planned in Brussels next month because Yerevan demanded French leader Emmanuel Macron mediate.

Azerbaijan accuses France of backing Armenia in the two countries' decades-long conflict over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Aliyev said he would not meet Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in Brussels on December 7 because the Armenian leader demanded that Macron attend the talks.