View: Will Congress move to lift aid limits on Azerbaijan?

A new proposal in the U.S. Congress aims to remove decades-old restrictions on American assistance to Azerbaijan, reopening a sensitive debate that has shaped Washington’s role in the region for more than thirty years.

The legislation, introduced by Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna, targets Section 907, a measure adopted in the early 1990s that blocked U.S. government-to-government assistance to Azerbaijan. Speaking to AnewZ, former U.S. diplomat Matthew Bryza said the narrative that underpinned the original restriction was “false”, noting that the political climate surrounding the measure has always been contested.

Bryza explained that the proposal is unlikely to advance quickly in Washington, not least because Section 907 remains one of the most polarising issues on Capitol Hill. He pointed to the Armenian Protection Act, approved by the U.S. Senate in 2023, which would force any president to implement Section 907 without a waiver. That bill has sat in the House Foreign Affairs Committee for two years, reflecting the entrenched divisions around Azerbaijan-Armenia policy.

Yet Bryza stressed that the introduction of Congresswoman Paulina’s bill carries political weight. She is a close ally of President Donald Trump, who has already signalled that he intends to continue waiving Section 907 restrictions throughout his term. Her move, he said, signals to Baku that support exists within Republican circles even if the legislative process stalls.

If the bill were to pass, Bryza argued the effect would be mostly symbolic. He described Section 907 as a measure that “has lost all of its meaning”, noting that Azerbaijan does not require U.S. financial assistance and that Trump has invested personally in supporting the peace process. The more immediate outcome, he said, would be psychological: greater confidence in Washington’s posture and a clear indication that the U.S. intends to engage with Azerbaijan as a valued partner.

What happens next will hinge on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Bryza said the decisive factor is whether its chairman allows the bill to proceed to a vote, a step that often depends on unrelated political bargaining. “These compromises can have absolutely nothing to do with Azerbaijan and Armenia,” he noted, underscoring how complex the internal dynamics can be.

For now, the proposal places Azerbaijan back on the legislative agenda in Washington at a time when regional diplomacy is shifting, U.S. policy is recalibrating, and bipartisan divisions remain sharp. As Bryza put it, symbolic or not, the bill’s arrival signals that the debate is far from settled.

Copied