ArmInfo.Senator Bob Menendez called on the United States to provide humanitarian aid to the Armenian people in the amount of $ 100 million and to immediately stop abandoning Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act. ArmInfo was informed about this by the press service of the Armenian Assembly of America.
"We express our gratitude to Senator Menendez for his support of the people of Armenia and Artsakh and his call to allocate $ 100 million to help the Armenian people," said Executive Director of the Armenian Assembly of America Brian Arduni.
In turn, member of the National Council of the Armenian National Committee of America ANCA Ani Chaglasyan stated her readiness to interact with the Congress and the administration in order to accept Senator Menendez's reasonable proposals on ensuring the security of Armenia and Artsakh.
The ANCA also informed that Senator Menendens, in his speech in the Senate, called on the United States to stop selling arms to Ankara and Baku, resume participation in the negotiation process within the OSCE Minsk Group and take a dominant position in the peace talks on Artsakh. "Despite the fact that the OSCE Minsk Group process seems to be in a life-support mode, we can and should intensify it with the participation of top leadership. We must give a clear signal to Ankara, Baku and Moscow that violence as a means of" resolving "the conflict will not be crowned success, and pressure on Armenia from its eastern and western borders is unacceptable, "the senator said.
At the same time, he condemned the passive position of the United States in the face of the aggression of Turkey and Azerbaijan against Armenia and Artsakh. "The US should pay attention to the aggression of Turkey and impose sanctions against it. President Erdogan is clearly striving to become a modern Ottoman sultan, placing bets in Libya, Syria, the Eastern Mediterranean, and now in the South Caucasus, "Senator Menendez said.
Amendment 907 was adopted by Congress in 1992 and prohibited the US administration from providing government assistance to Baku in connection with the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia. For many years, Azerbaijani diplomacy has been trying to abolish the 907th amendment.
As ArmInfo previously reported, during his visit to Yerevan in 2018, the then US President's National Security Advisor John Bolton, did not rule out the cancellation of Amendment 907 by President Donald Trump and the sale of weapons to Azerbaijan. Suspension decision action has not yet been taken, and I cannot predict what it will be in terms of increasing the sale of weapons. But the situation is such that Armenia purchases most of its weapons from Russia, Azerbaijan also purchases more than 80% from the Russian Federation. This circumstance, of course, does not contribute to the settlement of the Nagorno- Karabakh conflict, "Bolton noted then.
And already in 2019, the Trump administration suspended the implementation of this amendment. This year, its failure to comply was extended for another year.