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Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev didn’t take part in the 68th session of UN General Assembly in New York on September 24 because he had not allowed Thomas Melia, the delegation led by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State to the country, “Musavat.com” reports.

Aliyev met U.S. President Barack Obama at General Assembly meeting session in 2010, on the eve of parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan. This time, he lost the opportunity for an important meeting with Obama on the eve of the presidential elections in the country.

As the site notes, on September 18 in Novruz Mammadov the head of the foreign relations department of Azerbaijani Presidential Administration paid went to U.S. with a secret visit. He, however, failed to have meeting with Bill Burns, the U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, and to agree on Ilham Aliyev’s visit to General Assembly. The reason, according to the site, is in the rejection of the visit of monitoring group led by Thomas Melia to Azerbaijan by official Baku. The delegation was aimed at observing the presidential elections to be held on October 9.

Official Baku refused saying that they had "limited time because of the upcoming elections." In reality, Melia’s visit was rejected because of his harsh criticism of human rights violations in Azerbaijan as well as his statements saying that by "the nomination for a third term as president, Ilham Aliyev intercedes the "red line". "It seems that Washington couldn’t stand the visit rejection of his senior official because of the "time limitation," reads the site.

A source standing close to Western diplomatic circles in Baku told the website that the main reason for Novruz Mamedov’s visit, was obtaining consent for Ilham Aliyev’s visit to New York, as he had previously stated that " Ilham Aliyev’s election for a third term was agreed by all major powers," referring to the United States. As a proof, it was enough just to meet Obama for a short time, but the White House refused Aliyev. Novruz Mammadov’s silence following the visit to Washington is evidence to this.

In this connection, Mehman Aliyev, the head of news agency "Turan" stated that in June of the current year delegation of U.S. senators and congressmen led by Richard Lugar paid an official visit to Baku. Lugar is known as Barack Obama’s "godfather." After this visit the wave of criticism against Azerbaijan of Western press subsided in international press, international organizations and with the heads of the Western states.

"I think agreement between the government of Azerbaijan and the West played a role. I think that Ilham Aliyev had given some guarantees regarding the reforms of the situation in country. And I think Novruz Mammadov’s visit was a reminder for the authorities on these guarantees," Mehman Aliyev said.