ISRAELI FM SUPPORTS ELIMINATION OF JACKSON-VANICK’S AMENDMENT

Today.Az
ics/53303.html
June 22 2009
Azerbaijan

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman asked leaders of
pro-Israeli lobby of the United States, AIPAC to promote elimination
of Jackson-Vanick’s amendment.

According to Ytro.ru, the amendment was adopted by the congress in 1974
to limit relations of the United States with USSR in economy unless
Moscow was strictly restricting departure of Soviet Jews. Yet after
the USSR collapse the amendments embraced Russia and other CIS states.

And though a moratorium has been imposed on it, the amendment was
annulled only on Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia and Armenia, while for
other CIS states, including Azerbaijan, it is an obstacle in joint WTO.

"The amendment has become not urgent long before. Today is it more
of moral, psychological than practical importance", said Lieberman
in the interview to IzRus portal. We will try to accelerate the issue
of this amendment in the next few months".

At the same time the Foreign Minister refuted information by some
Israeli mass media that appeared during his recent visit to Moscow
that the White House is allegedly extremely discontented with closing
between Russia and Israel. "The United States fully support our
contacts with Russia", said Lieberman. He added that representatives
of the US administration expressed high interest towards his trip
to Moscow. "They asked me much about it, got interest in details,
especially in the light of the upcoming visit of president Obama to
the Russian capital", said the Iranian FM.

Notably, even during the visit to the United States he found time
to promote relations with Russia. On June 18 the Israeli FM had a
telephone conversation with his Russian counterpart and on the next
day he met with Russian envoy in UN Vitali Churkin.

Lieberman believes that relations with Moscow add weight to relations
with Washington and vise versa. He views relations of Israel with
USA and Russia in a wide geopolitical context.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress