Through its shortsighted actions, the Biden administration has damaged its chance to be an unbiased “mediator” in the peace process between Azerbaijan and Armenia. As a result, Washington’s plan to facilitate talks between the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers in January 2024 has failed.

Particular damage to US relations with Azerbaijan was caused by a report of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), which made groundless accusations against Baku. The USCIRF recommended the State Department include Azerbaijan on its Special Watch List for engaging or tolerating severe violations of religious freedom. Former Armenian lobbyist Danielle Ashbahian was involved in compiling the report, and it had the backing of Iranian-supported Shia extremists, whose goal is to establish a theocracy in Azerbaijan. Following terror attacks against the Azerbaijani embassy in Tehran in January 2023 and the assassination attempt against Azerbaijani MP Fazil Mustafa in Baku, some of these Shia extremists have been arrested and held legally accountable on sound evidence of them working for Iran.

In addition, the report also says that Armenian religious sites in Azerbaijan are supposedly in danger but fails to bring a single piece of evidence to back the claim. The report is mixed with politics and attempts to condemn Azerbaijan’s restoration of its sovereignty over the territories formerly occupied by Armenia.  However, the subsequent action by the State Department to add Azerbaijan to the Special Watch List countries further strained US-Azerbaijan relations, despite the visit of Ambassador O’Brien to Baku and his positive posts on X (Twitter). This happened when Washington was trying to arrange Armenia-Azerbaijan peace talks and seemed to have corrected its mistaken approach towards Azerbaijan.

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