Azernews.Az

The United States considers Azerbaijan a valuable partner on a broad range of security issues, State Department spokesman Philip Crowley has said while commenting on Baku’s recent turning down its joint military exercises with Washington, according to the State Department website.
"As to Azerbaijan’s intentions, we refer those questions to the Azeri government," Crowley told the press. "On the subject of military exercise, that’s more of a DoD [Department of Defense] matter. But we will continue to work in the Minsk process along with Russia, France, as the three OSCE co-chairs work with the parties – Armenia and Azerbaijan – to seek a long-term resolution to the Upper Garabagh conflict."
Asked whether or not the U.S. was concerned about growing Iranian influence in Azerbaijan and the possibility that it could have played a role in Baku’s decision to "postpone this exercise", Crowley said he had "no indication that this was anything but a decision by Azerbaijan."
Azerbaijani officials have recently said Azerbaijan has come under pressure to make concessions in settling the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh and blamed the U.S., one of the mediators in peace talks, for failing to maintain impartiality and providing support to Armenia.*