Bolton: Trump may use its powers to repeal 907th Amendment 

ArmInfo.. South Caucasus is a critically important region for the USA, the U.S. President Donald Trump's National Security Advisor John Bolton stated in an interview  with Voice of America.

"It's our view that the South Caucasus is a critically important  region strategically for the United States. And exemplified by  Azerbaijan being the only country that borders both Russia and Iran.  And one of the reasons that the President has decided to withdraw  from the It's our view that the South Caucasus is a critically  important region strategically for the United States. And exemplified  by Azerbaijan being the only country that borders both Russia and  Iran. And one of the reasons that the President has decided to  withdraw from the INF Treaty is because of Russian violations,  producing and deploying missiles that can fire within the prohibited  ranges of the treaty, obviously hitting potentially nearby countries.  So the risk to international peace and security comes from Russia's  violation of the treaty, not America's withdrawal from it", he said.

According to Bolton during his visit he discussed with President  Aliyev , and the Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov, exactly how to  address the objective of putting maximum pressure on Iran without  causing undue hardship to Azerbaijan.

Answering the question whether the issue of Nagorno-Karabakh  settlement was discussed during the visit to Russia, Bolton confirmed  that it was discussed. Moreover, according to him, one of the  purposes of the visit was to help him gain a better understanding of  the issues and positions of Azerbaijan and Armenia. "Obviously the  U.S. is one of the co-chairs of the Minsk Group. We take this  responsibility very seriously. We think that getting a solution  that's satisfactory to both parties is especially important, given  the strategic significance of this region. So it's something we'll  try and pay attention to and help the parties through the Minsk  process", he stressed. 

Touching upon the possibility of repealing the 907 Amendment the US  presidential Adviser did not rule out that Donald Trump may use its  authority to waive the 907 Amendment to the Freedom Support Act,  which restricts providing aid to Azerbaijan by USA on the state  level.  "This is a statute adopted by Congress. It's not necessarily  entirely the policy of the executive branch. And under our  constitution it's really the President who sets foreign policy.

So on a number of occasions different Presidents have waived that  provision in order to make sales, and it's something that we look at  constantly to decide what's appropriate", Bolton concluded. 

Amendment 907 was adopted by the Congress in 1992 and prohibited the  provision of assistance to Baku through the government line by the US  administration in connection with the conflict between Azerbaijan and  Armenia. For many years, Azerbaijani diplomacy has sought to repeal  the 907th Amendment, but so far without success.