Azerbaijani policy of the USA. New ambassador, new mediator, Karabakh, human rights...

Baku/13.01.23/Turan: President Biden insists on the appointment of diplomat Mark Libby as ambassador to Azerbaijan, the approval of which has been delayed for more than six months. Biden re-nominated Libby the day Congress began.

Ambassador Philip Reeker, recently appointed Senior State Department Negotiation Adviser in the Caucasus, is retiring from the Foreign Service on January 5. State Department spokesman Ned Price said, "... He was expected to hold the position on a short-term basis until the end of last year."

The State Department has criticized recent human rights violations in Azerbaijan related to the arrest of government critics Tofig Yagublu and Bakhtiyar Hajiyev. At the same time, the Biden administration announced an initiative to release political prisoners.

Turan's Washington correspondent Alex Raufoglu talks about all this in the “Difficult Question” program.

According to him, the appointment of the ambassador is essentially a procedural matter. The US administration submitted Mark Libby to the Senate as a candidate for the post of ambassador to Azerbaijan, even before the current ambassador, Earl Litzenberger, resigned and left Baku.

“The Senate Foreign Affairs Committee is considering the nomination. If the candidacy is approved, this stage ends, and the Senate starts its consideration. After the candidacy receives the approval of the majority in the Senate (at least 51 votes), he is approved for the post of ambassador,” Raufoglu explained.

He also noted that there were cases when the candidacy was approved by the Committee within a few weeks, but it also happened that this procedure was delayed for a year, or even a year and a half.

“The process may be delayed after the hearings in the Senate. But the matter has not yet reached the Senate, since the Foreign Affairs Committee has not yet approved the candidacy of Mark Libby. And there are reasons for this. His appointment was thwarted by well-known Armenian lobbyist Senator Bob Menendez, who chairs the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee (Libby's appointment expired at the end of the year, and his candidacy was returned to President Joe Biden on January 3, 2023 - ed. note), the journalist said.

Rapufoglu drew attention to the fact that the issue of appointing the US Ambassador to Armenia was resolved within 2-3 weeks. The issue of appointing an ambassador to Russia was also quickly resolved (the former US ambassador to Armenia was sent there). But the issue of appointing an ambassador to Azerbaijan has been dragging on for about half a year.

“The US administration highly appreciates the professionalism of Mark Libby, who is a career diplomat, at various times worked as Deputy Director for Crisis Management of the State Department Operations Center, Deputy Director of the Office for Central Europe, Director of the Office for Southern Europe, knows Azerbaijan well. Therefore, President Biden reappointed Libby,” the journalist said. –0--