By Valerie Volcovici
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nearly 60 US lawmakers on Thursday asked Secretary of State Antony Blinken to press Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev to uphold human rights protections and release political prisoners ahead of the COP29 climate summit that will be held in its capital Baku next month.
The lawmakers, which include 10 senators and 48 representatives, urged Blinken to force Azerbaijan to take "tangible measures" to free political prisoners and condemn provocative statements against adversary Armenia, which "run the risk of undermining peace negotiations" after it retook full control of the disputed breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
The COP29 Azerbaijani presidency did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
KEY QUOTE
"We urge the State Department to press for the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners, hostages, and POWs, including ethnic Armenians, to enable a more conducive environment for successful diplomacy at COP29," the letter said.
CONTEXT
At last year's COP28 climate summit in Dubai, Azerbaijan announced it would host the next round of UN negotiations after it reached an agreement with Armenia that assured it would not face the threat of an Armenian veto, prompting criticism by human rights groups and relatives of government critics jailed by the country.
Earlier this year, the legal team for a former top official in the ethnic Armenian administration of Nagorno-Karabakh has alleged in a letter to a U.N. official that the politician has been tortured while in custody in Azerbaijan.