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U.S. insist on the statement of the State Department made on October 10 regarding the presidential elections held in Azerbaijan, said in an interview with the Azerbaijani service of Radio "Liberty" the U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan Richard Morningstar, in response to the request to announce the final assessment of the United States on the elections in Azerbaijan.

On October 10 the U.S. State Department spokesman Marie Harf stated that the U.S. have repeatedly urged the government of Azerbaijan to ensure free and fair elections, however with a sorrow they had to admit that these elections did not meet international standards. The paper notes that the United States shared the OSCE / ODIHR and the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s opinion that Azerbaijani elections were held with serious violations.

"There is nothing more to add to this statement," he said. According to him the U.S. will continue to keep the Nagorno-Karabakh issue in the center of its attention as well as the fight against terrorism, issues related to Afghanistan, geopolitical stability, energy issues, the issue of diversification of the economy and the non-oil sector.

To the comment of the journalist that President Obama’s letter to President Ilham Aliyev was met with Azerbaijan ambiguously, for the letter did not include the "congratulations word" in it Morningstar answered that "it was a very important letter." According to him, in the letter of the U.S. President both the state of democracy and human rights were mentioned, also attention was paid to the elections.
The ambassador believes that the letter was directly addressed, and it accurately reflected the thoughts of the senior administration officials.

Speaking of the post-election processes in Azerbaijan, of the tax audits in the Center of elections monitoring and democracy training in particular, Morningstar emphasized that the United States hopes that there will not be undertaken objectionable steps by the authorities against the opposition activists. In his words, "the best and the right steps of the authorities in a number of lawsuits would be holding them in the frameworks of law, transparently."

The Ambassador also commented on the scandalous trials in Azerbaijan, in particular, the trial of the members of the NIDA movement, opposition activists, and participants of the Ismailly events. "Only then it would be clear whether the government has claims over the law, or it is really a punishment for political activities. We really hope that such actions will not be undertaken," he said.

Speaking about the meeting of the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan taken place on Tuesday, the ambassador noted that the U.S., as the Minsk Group co-chair, "will make all necessary efforts for promoting the creative initiatives in order to resolve the conflict." "In my opinion, everyone should understand that we can put forward bold ideas about conflict resolution, facilitation of settlement process, to encourage all this, however, the parties must come to an agreement by themselves," he said.

The Ambassador expressed hope that the presidents will make a decision, will undertake concrete steps to resolve the conflict by saying "that’s enough." In his opinion, it would be in the interests of all the Azerbaijanis and Armenians.