State Department Official Dodges Boxer Question on Azerbaijani Threats

Praises Azerbaijani President for ‘Good Faith’ Efforts

WASHINGTON—A senior State Department nominee, under questioning from Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) as part of his Senate confirmation process, avoided her direct question about Azerbaijan’s pattern of military threats against Nagorno-Karabagh, choosing instead to respond by praising Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev for cooperating in “good faith” with the Nagorno Karabagh peace process, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

”Remaining silent on Azerbaijan’s war threats—particularly when these warnings of war are raised in such a direct, well-documented, and public manner before the United States Senate—only emboldens leaders in Baku to continue down the path to renewed aggression,” said ANCA executive director Aram Hamparian. “The unwillingness
of our State Department to publicly confront these open threats is inconsistent with our role as an honest broker in the Nagorno-Karabagh peace process, and, ultimately, undermines the prospects for a durable settlement of this conflict.”

The nominee, Andrew Shapiro appeared before the panel, which was chaired by Senator Boxer, on June 3, and submitted his written responses to her questions earlier this week. Shapiro has been nominated by President Barack Obama to serve as assistant secretary of state for political-military affairs at the State Department. He currently serves as a senior advisor to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Prior to this position, he served for eight years as the senior defense and foreign policy advisor for then-Senator Clinton.

Senator Boxer also asked Shapiro about the administration’s proposal to break the longstanding Congressional policy of maintaining military aid parity between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Shapiro responded by justifying this recommendation that the Congress enact an unprecedented tilt in military aid toward Baku by noting that, unlike Armenia, “Azerbaijan has a large naval and maritime security component in order to help secure energy transit routes, and to counter proliferation and drug trafficking on the Caspian Sea.”