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.