Azerbaijan rejects US-organized peace talks with Armenia
Azerbaijan continues to refuse to participate in peace talks with Armenia, citing what it calls the biased approach of Western mediating countries. This time it was the United States that displeased Azerbaijan .
On November 16, Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry released a statement announcing the country's decision not to participate in the meeting of Armenian and Azerbaijani Foreign Ministers in Washington, scheduled for four days later.
The snub was largely a response to U.S. Deputy Secretary of State James O'Brien's testimony the previous day at a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing titled "The Future of Nagorno-Karabakh." He told the committee that the United States was working to establish a “comprehensive, thorough and transparent” record of what happened in the former Armenian-populated enclave before and during Azerbaijan's military takeover in September.
“ We have commissioned independent investigators, we have our own investigators working on the ground. There is information available from international non-governmental organizations and other investigators. And as we develop documentation of what happened, we will be completely open about what we are doing .” “ I cannot establish a timeline for this investigation, but we will inform you as we move forward ,” he said.
O'Brien went on to express support for Armenia, which has attempted to distance itself from Russia and is rushing to accommodate the estimated 100,000 people displaced from Nagorno-Karabakh in September.
“I am very impressed by the Armenian government's commitment to reform and diversifying the relationships it has – economic, political, energy and security – particularly in the transatlantic community ,” he said. “And I think we owe it to the Armenian people to help them overcome this difficult situation so that the choices they have made with great courage can help them have a more secure, stable and prosperous future.”
O'Brien also said that the United States has canceled bilateral meetings and high-level engagements with Azerbaijan (without specifying exactly when) and will continue to urge Baku to " facilitate the return of Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh who could wanting to return to their homes or visit cultural sites in the region, as well as restoring free commercial, humanitarian and pedestrian traffic in the region .”
In its statement, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry called the hearing “ a serious blow to relations between Azerbaijan and the United States in bilateral and multilateral formats .”
“The baseless accusations leveled against Azerbaijan are irrelevant and undermine peace and security in the region ,” the statement read.
On the day of the hearing, the US Senate also adopted a bill titled “ Armenian Protection Act of 2023 .” If signed into law, the bill would suspend all military aid to Azerbaijan by repealing the Administration's waiver authority, section 907, of the Freedom Support Act, section 907, with respect to assistance to Azerbaijan through the years 2024 and 2025.
On this front, Azerbaijan's diplomatic corps argued that the United States was repeating “the same mistake ” made in 1992, when Azerbaijan was enshrined with this amendment, “ despite being a state that faced aggression and occupation ” at the hands of Armenian forces.
Azerbaijan has an easy time playing with the support of NATO country Turkey, while Armenia still has close economic ties with Russia, although the government is trying to improve relations with the West and leans more on the US . Azerbaijan knows very well that now Russia, busy in Ukraine, no longer has any interest in Armenia and the USA can hardly commit 100% in favor of Armenia. In this situation, Azerbaijan can act as it pleases.
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The article Azerbaijan rejects US-organized peace talks with Armenia comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/lazerbaigian-rifiuta-i-colloqui-di-pace-con-larmenia-organizzati-dagli-usa/ on Wed, 22 Nov 2023 06:15:35 +0000.