WASHINGTON, DC \u2013 U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee,\u00a0 sent a letter to Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo vehemently opposing the Commerce Department\u2019s apparent plans to consider granting a license to permit the export of rifles \u2013 possibly including assault-style or sniper semiautomatic rifles \u2013 to Azerbaijan. Highlighting well-documented and credible allegations of Azerbaijan\u2019s atrocities against Armenians \u2013 including the deaths and displacement of thousands of Armenians in the wake of the 2020 Nagorno Karabakh War and the 2022 invasion of Armenia, in addition to Baku\u2019s ongoing blockade of the Lachin Corridor \u2013 Chairman Menendez urged Secretary Raimondo to ensure that no lethal weapons are sent to any persons or entities in Azerbaijan.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe export of weapons to an authoritarian country that wages war against a neighbor, blockades a vulnerable population, and commits rampant human rights violations at home is not consistent with the Administration\u2019s commitment to democracy and human rights,\u201d\u00a0Chairman Menendez wrote. \u201cI am strongly opposed to sending any deadly weapons to Azerbaijan.\u201d<\/p>\n
Requesting an immediate response from Secretary Raimondo concerning guarantees from Azerbaijan that U.S. weapons are not used to commit further atrocities against the Armenians and will not be diverted to government military, security, or paramilitary forces, Chairman Menendez also inquired into the extent to which Commerce consulted with State Department on whether to grant Azerbaijan an export license.<\/p>\n
\u201cthe consideration of this export license further compounds my dismay that the Administration continues to allow the export of assault-style and sniper rifles abroad \u2013 even while supporting an assault-style rifle ban domestically \u2013 and deepens my reservations about the Department of Commerce having jurisdiction over such exports,\u201d\u00a0Chairman Menendez added. \u201cAs you know, it remains my firm belief that such jurisdiction should be returned to the State Department to ensure the appropriate foreign policy considerations integral to such decisions are taken into account.\u201d<\/p>\n
Find a copy of the letter\u00a0HERE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" WASHINGTON, DC \u2013 U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee,\u00a0…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1660,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"post_badge":[],"class_list":["post-3045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Menendez.jpg",1280,720,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Menendez-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Menendez-300x169.jpg",250,141,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Menendez-768x432.jpg",640,360,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Menendez-500x281.jpg",400,225,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Menendez.jpg",1280,720,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Menendez.jpg",1280,720,false],"covernews-slider-full":["https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Menendez-1115x715.jpg",1115,715,true],"covernews-slider-center":["https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Menendez-800x500.jpg",800,500,true],"covernews-featured":["https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Menendez-1024x576.jpg",1024,576,true],"covernews-medium":["https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Menendez-540x340.jpg",540,340,true],"covernews-medium-square":["https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Menendez-400x250.jpg",400,250,true],"rpwe-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Menendez-45x45.jpg",45,45,true]},"author_info":{"display_name":"ArmenianCouncil","author_link":"https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/author\/armeniancouncil\/"},"category_info":"News<\/a>","tag_info":"News","comment_count":0,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Menendez.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3045"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3045\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3046,"href":"https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3045\/revisions\/3046"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3045"},{"taxonomy":"post_badge","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_badge?post=3045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}