ArmInfo.The American Senate adopted a pro-Armenian project - S. 3000 (IS) - Armenian Protection Act of 2023, depriving Azerbaijan of military support.
Thus, senators voted for a document that does not allow the president to use Public Law 107-115. The bill prohibits the President from waiving Section 907 of the FREEDOM Support Act for the next two years. U.S. Senator Gary Peters (MI) introduced the bipartisan bill on September 29, 2023 in response to the Azerbaijani government's attacks on Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh.
If the project is adopted by the House of Representatives and signed by the head of state, it will prohibit the US President from waiving Section 907 and receive funding to help Azerbaijan from budget allocations for 2024-2025.
In October 1992, the U.S. Congress passed a law called the Freedom Defending Act, regulating the provision of government assistance to the former Soviet republics.
According to Section 907 of this law, the U.S. government was prohibited from providing assistance to official bodies of Azerbaijan. Section 907 has been suspended by the President of the United States since 2002 (after the events of September 11, 2001) on an annual basis, in accordance with the powers that Congress granted him in 2001.
Yesterday, US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs James O'Brien said at a hearing in the Foreign Relations Committee: ""We have made it clear that nothing will be normal with Azerbaijan after the developments of September 19 until we see progress on a peaceful track. "So we have canceled a number of high-level visits, condemned [Baku's] actions, and we do not anticipate submitting a waiver [of further aid] until we see a genuine improvement in the situation," the diplomat said. "We have repeatedly signaled that the use of force inside Armenia is completely unacceptable. And we are very closely monitoring troop movements and any signs that they may have certain plans. As I indicated, we have told them that there is no chance of business as usual with Azerbaijan, as long as the peace agreement between Baku and Yerevan goes unconcluded," the top State Department official in charge of Europe and Eurasia said.
The statements of the American official in Baku have already been called "one-sided and biased", as well as "counterproductive, groundless and unacceptable". The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry stated that allegedly "the US's unilateral approach could lead to the US losing its role as a mediator." "It is important to note that under these conditions we do not consider it possible to hold a meeting at the level of the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia on November 20, 2023 in Washington," the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said in a commentary.
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