The Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador to the U.S. in Armenia John Evans gave a rather diplomatic “warning” to the authorities during his press conference yesterday. The ambassador told the authorities that they had to be cautious while keeping touch with Iran because they may indirectly support terrorism Otherwise, the U.S. will punish all the countries or organizations that make large investments in Iran’s energy field.
During the press conference yesterday, John Evans commented on President George Bush’s address and said that the U.S. emphasizes on the establishment of peace and stability in the world. However, the U.S. is worried about the comments that the president of the Islamic Republic of Iran Mahmud Ahmedinejad is making regarding the nuclear weapons.
“Iran supports the terrorists. Human rights are violated in that country for over 20 years now and the U.S. is worried about the nuclear weapon’s program,” said J. Evans. The ambassador added that the U.S. expects its allies to join in the fight against terror.
“According to the U.S. legislation, the countries or organizations making large investments in Iran’s energy field will be punished,” this was John Evans’ warning to the authorities. He added that although Armenia had not gotten ahead of itself, however,it shouldn’t do that either.
“The U.S. understands the situation of the energy field in Armenia and the fact that Armenia is trying to diversify its energy sources. To this day, Armenia has not gone against U.S. legislation by working with Iran,” said Evans. He said that he has also warned many high officials during meetings with them. As to what the punishment will be if Armenia goes against the U.S., John Evans did not wish to go into further details.
The U.S. Ambassador also touched upon the gas pipeline explosion that took place on the early morning of January 22 and the energetic crisis that took place shortly after.
“The recent gas pipeline explosion showed that it is necessary to find stable energy for the Southern Caucasus region,” said John Evans. According to the ambassador, the U.S. is following up on the gas pipeline.
“I can only say that the U.S. believes that the prices for energetic resources must correspond to the market prices and it should not be based on cosmopolitan views,” said the ambassador.
Evans thinks that the market can help solve the transit Armenian-Iranian gas pipeline issue. However, he did not wish to reveal the U.S.’s opinion on this due to the fact that there still is no progress in this field.
“The U.S. is in favor of free market economy and prefers to settle the issue based on that economy,” said Evans as he emphasized the necessity of having stable energetic resources in the Southern Caucasus region.
The U.S. Ambassador also emphasized the fact that the U.S. supports the countries making democratic reforms.
“We help countries that are growing and developing democracy, however, we see that democracies show their national and cultural sides. There is no specific form of democracy in the world,” said the ambassador.
During the press conference yesterday, John Evans avoided talking about the Karabagh conflict, claiming that the U.S. was not involved in that issue.
“We are with Russia and France and believe that the OSCE chairmen are doing their best to settle the conflict peacefully. Both sides differ in opinions. The most difficult thing for diplomats and the two presidents of the countries is to come to terms,” said Evans. As for the allocation of the peacekeeping forces in the conflict zone and which forces are going to be allocated, Evans said the following:
“It is too early to talk about which forces will be allocated when the forces haven’t even agreed on allocation.”
P.S. In regard to the 2005 Armenian constitutional amendments referendum and the evaluations given by the U.S., John Evans said that they had touched upon that a long time ago. “Recently, the owner of the Thousand Years’ Challenge Corporation and ambassador Danilovich had sent a letter to president Kocharyan where the U.S. had expressed how worried it was about the referendum results,” said John Evans. The Ambassador informed that the U.S. State Secretary will end the report on human rights in a month and that report will also talk about defending human rights in Armenia.