Why didn’t Obama invite President Ilham Aliyev to UN General Assembl

Why didn’t Obama invite President Ilham Aliyev to UN General Assembly?

15:51 26/09/2013 » REGION

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev didn’t take part in the 68th
session of UN General Assembly in New York on September 24 because he
had not allowed Thomas Melia, the delegation led by Deputy Assistant
Secretary of State to the country, `Musavat.com’ reports.

Aliyev met U.S. President Barack Obama at General Assembly meeting
session in 2010, on the eve of parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan.
This time, he lost the opportunity for an important meeting with Obama
on the eve of the presidential elections in the country.

As the site notes, on September 18 in Novruz Mammadov the head of the
foreign relations department of Azerbaijani Presidential
Administration paid went to U.S. with a secret visit. He, however,
failed to have meeting with Bill Burns, the U.S. Deputy Secretary of
State, and to agree on Ilham Aliyev’s visit to General Assembly. The
reason, according to the site, is in the rejection of the visit of
monitoring group led by Thomas Melia to Azerbaijan by official Baku.
The delegation was aimed at observing the presidential elections to be
held on October 9.

Official Baku refused saying that they had “limited time because of
the upcoming elections.” In reality, Melia’s visit was rejected
because of his harsh criticism of human rights violations in
Azerbaijan as well as his statements saying that by “the nomination
for a third term as president, Ilham Aliyev intercedes the “red line”.
“It seems that Washington couldn’t stand the visit rejection of his
senior official because of the “time limitation,” reads the site.

A source standing close to Western diplomatic circles in Baku told the
website that the main reason for Novruz Mamedov’s visit, was obtaining
consent for Ilham Aliyev’s visit to New York, as he had previously
stated that ” Ilham Aliyev’s election for a third term was agreed by
all major powers,” referring to the United States. As a proof, it was
enough just to meet Obama for a short time, but the White House
refused Aliyev. Novruz Mammadov’s silence following the visit to
Washington is evidence to this.

In this connection, Mehman Aliyev, the head of news agency “Trend”,
stated that in June of the current year delegation of U.S. senators
and congressmen led by Richard Lugar paid an official visit to Baku.
Lugar is known as Barack Obama’s “godfather.” After this visit the
wave of criticism against Azerbaijan of Western press subsided in
international press, international organizations and with the heads of
the Western states.

“I think agreement between the government of Azerbaijan and the West
played a role. I think that Ilham Aliyev had given some guarantees
regarding the reforms of the situation in country. And I think Novruz
Mammadov’s visit was a reminder for the authorities on these
guarantees,” Mehman Aliyev said.

Source: Panorama.am