Azatutyun.am. Official Baku has refused to hold an Armenian-Azerbaijani meeting in Washington after remarks by a senior United States official regarded in Azerbaijan as “a blow to relations.”
Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement on Thursday describing some of the statements made by James O’Brien, assistant secretary at the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, as “one-sided” and “biased.”
“A one-sided approach by the United States could lead to the loss by Washington of its role as a mediator,” the ministry said, as quoted by Azerbaijan’s APA news agency.
“Under these circumstances, it is important to note that we do not consider possible to hold the proposed meeting at the level of the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia in Washington on November 20, 2023,” it added.
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Addressing the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Subcommittee on Europe during a November 15 hearing on “the future of Nagorno-Karabakh,” O’Brien said that Washington “made clear that nothing will be normal with Azerbaijan after the events of September 19 until we see progress on the peace track.”
He referred to Baku’s one-day military operation in Nagorno-Karabakh as a result of which virtually the entire local Armenian population – more than 100,000 people – fled to Armenia.
O’Brien said that Washington canceled a number of high-level visits to Azerbaijan in response to that action and that “we don’t anticipate submitting a waiver on Section 907 until such time that we see a real improvement.”
Section 907 of the United States’ 1992 Freedom Support Act bans any kind of direct United States aid to the Azerbaijani government.
The U.S. official also warned Azerbaijan against using force to open a land corridor to its western exclave of Nakhichevan via Armenia. “A transit corridor created some other way – by force or with the involvement of Iran – will, I think, be met with a very strong reaction and will not be a success,” O’Brien said, in particular.
In its commentary the Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign Affairs spoke about reciprocal steps by Baku after the U.S. official’s statements.
“Concerning the statement that the U.S. has cancelled high-level bilateral meetings and engagements, which were initiated by the U.S. with Azerbaijan, and that there cannot be “business as usual” in our bilateral relationship,” it should be noted that the relations could not be one-sided. Consequently, the same approach will be applied equally by Azerbaijan. In these circumstances, we consider the possibility of high-level visits from the United States to Azerbaijan inappropriate as well,” the Azerbaijani ministry said.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev had withdrawn from multilateral talks involving Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian that were scheduled to take place on the margins of the European Union’s October 5 summit in Granada, Spain. Pashinian had hoped that the sides there would sign a document laying out the main parameters of an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty. Baku explained its refusal to attend the meeting in Granada by the attitude of France that has been supplying Armenia with weapons recently.
The Azerbaijani leader also appears to have cancelled another meeting which EU Council President Charles Michel planned to host in Brussels later in October.
Earlier this week, Armenian officials said Yerevan was ready for talks with Baku both in Brussels and Washington.
Meanwhile, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell said on Thursday that Brussels continues to make efforts to restart negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan without delay. He said that the ultimate goal of the negotiation process is the conclusion of a peace treaty between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
