Azernews.Az

BAKU – The appointment of Matthew Bryza as the next US ambassador to Azerbaijan faces no hurdles at the White House and the State Department, the spokesman for the US embassy in Baku said.

Terry Davidson told reporters that the issue is under the powers of the Senate, an independent body.

"Matthew Bryza’s nomination as the American ambassador is under review in the Senate, and all we can do is wait. There is no other way to appoint an ambassador to Azerbaijan."

Davidson also expressed confidence that the latest meeting of US and Azerbaijani Presidents Barack Obama and Ilham Aliyev and the recent visits by senior US officials to Azerbaijan indicate that relations between the two countries are moving forward.

The decision to approve Bryza was passed by the Foreign Relations Committee on September 21 after a heated debate. His nomination is now to be endorsed by the full Senate.

The post of US ambassador to Azerbaijan has been vacant for 14 months. The Foreign Relations Committee has held numerous hearings on Bryza’s appointment. Earlier, in August, discussions on the White House nomination were postponed due to the efforts of several senators.

Bryza has a near-22-year-long diplomatic career that put him at the center of the South Caucasus’ strategic issues. As deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs from 2005 to 2009, Bryza coordinated US energy policy in the Black and Caspian Sea regions, and represented the U.S. on the OSCE’s Minsk Group talks on a resolution of Azerbaijan’s 22-year conflict with Armenia over the occupied region of Nagorno Karabakh.