The Azerbaijani President`s Assistant for Public and Political Affairs Ali Hasanov has said he believes that American congressmen will consider the importance of US-Azerbaijani relations as he commented on an anti-Azerbaijani bill sent to the US Congress by chairman of the Helsinki Commission, Congressman Chris Smith. “We believe that congressmen will not vote for the bill and it will just remain an initiative of Chris Smith.”

He also commented on a draft resolution calling on Azerbaijan to review its relations with Washington, which was submitted by an Azerbaijani MP. “Any parliamentarian can put forward an initiative. But it can be passed only after being widely discussed, and members of parliament must duly weight the advantages and disadvantages of this initiative. So our government has the same position on both the anti-Azerbaijani bill submitted to the Congress and the anti-American resolution submitted to the Milli Majlis,” the Presidential Assistant said.

Mr Hasanov commented on the current state of Azerbaijani-US relations: “The number of reciprocal visits has considerably fallen recently. Despite this, we still maintain the relations. A large American delegation has recently visited Azerbaijan. We maintain the relations on the level of embassies, foreign ministries, and security services. Azerbaijan and the USA have strategic relations in the field of security. Actually, we do not have previous intensity. But we maintain relations…”

He also commented on US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland`s proposal to set up an Azerbaijani-US governmental human rights commission. “We are not engaged in talks on this issue now,” Mr Hasanov added.