Top U.S. Senator urges ending U.S. military aid to Azerbaijan

PanARMENIAN.Net - Reports of Armenian casualties and Armenian soldiers taken as political prisoners by Azerbaijan are deeply concerning, Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Bob Menendez said on Thursday, November 18, calling for an end to the U.S. military aid to Azerbaijan.

"Defense aid to [Azerbaijan] helps enable these heinous acts against ethnic Armenians. It is time to pass my NDAA amendment cutting this aid." Menendez wrote on Twitter.

Menendez has earlier introduced a powerful amendment that would end U.S. presidential waiver authority of Section 907 of the FREEDOM Support Act, which would effectively block U.S. military aid to Azerbaijan.

The amendment (#4177) is one of three amendments to the Senate version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that deals with U.S. aid to Azerbaijan as well as Azerbaijani and Turkish war crimes committed against Artsakh and Armenia during the 2020 war. The amendment removes all references to presidential waiver authority of Section 907, a provision first put in place in 2001, and utilized by successive U.S. presidents – including President Biden, even in the wake of Azerbaijan’s 2020 brutal aggression against Artsakh in Armenia. Since 2016, the U.S. has provided over $120 million in U.S. military assistance to Azerbaijan, in the face of objections by Members of Congress and the ANCA, which has long raised alarms about the Aliyev regime’s belligerence in the region.