By the OGJ Online Staff
WASHINGTON, DC, Jan. 31 --US oil companies are praising a White House decision Wednesday to conditionally waive a decade-old sanction that blocks official US aid to oil-rich Azerbaijan.
President George W. Bush waived Sec. 907 of the Freedom Support Act. Congress put the sanction in place in 1992 because Azerbaijan refused to trade with its neighbor Armenia during a conflict over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.
But central Asia's expanded role in the US fight against terrorism helped accelerate a tentative compromise between the two groups that had eluded US officials for much of a decade. Former President George Bush had sought to lift the sanctions, as did former President Bill Clinton, but Congress was not persuaded.
"President Bush and his administration worked closely with both the Senate and the House of Representatives, with members of the Armenian American community, and with the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia to develop a waiver that is effective, fair, and balanced," the White House said in a Jan. 30 statement . "The waiver clears the way for the US to deepen its cooperation with Azerbaijan in fighting terrorism and in impeding the movement of terrorists into the South Caucasus. The waiver will also provide a foundation to deepen security cooperation with Armenia on a common anti-terrorist agenda."
Industry lobbyists said the move will create a more positive business climate in the oil-rich country. Several multinational oil companies are working with the Azeris to facilitate the construction of a pipeline from the Azeri capital of Baku through Tblisi, Georgia, and on to the Mediterranean Turkish port of Ceyhan.
"Additional US assistance would help improve the prospects for further democratization, legal and regulatory reform, and alleviation of poverty," ExxonMobil Corp. said in an opinion piece that ran in major newspapers in September 2000. "Regional coordination of energy development, environmental protection of the Caspian Sea, and multiple oil and gas pipeline projects would all be advanced by a supportive US role. But achieving these goals is compromised by sanctions."
Late last year, in the fiscal 2002 Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill, Congress gave the President the authority to waive Sec. 907. That bill also stated that any assistance to Azerbaijan cannot be used for aggressive purposes against Armenian communities in the southern Caucasus.
US assistance to Azerbaijan will be $50 million in 2002, US and Azeri officials say. President Bush is expected to propose additional funds in his 2003 budget proposal next month.
