Candidate for US Ambassador to Azerbaijan comments on Baku-Yerevan talks

A candidate for the US ambassador post in Azerbaijan, Mark Libby, commented on the Azerbaijan-Armenia normalisation during the Senate hearings on June 13.

Libby said the good news is that at present, at least, all parties are seriously involved in the negotiation process.

"It won't be easy, but the solution we want to achieve is about the rights and security of all people in the region, as well as issues of sovereignty and territorial integrity," he stated.

Libby's remarks came in response to a question by pro-Armenian Senator Bob Menendez about the situation in Karabakh and the Lachin road.

“As for the situation in Karabakh, I do not want to be biased on this, given that this is an issue that the parties will decide,” Libby added.

President Joe Biden presented Libby as the nominee for Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Azerbaijan in May 2022.

Mark W. Libby, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service with the rank of Minister-Counselor, currently serves as a State Department Faculty Advisor at the National War College in Washington, DC.

Previously, he served as Deputy Chief of Mission and Chargé d’Affaires ad interim at the U.S. Mission to the European Union in Brussels. Other overseas assignments include tours in Warsaw, Nassau, Nicosia, and Baghdad, where he served as Political Counselor. His Washington assignments include tours as a watch-stander and later Deputy Director for Crisis Management in the State Department Operations Center; Deputy Director in the Office of Central European Affairs; Director of the Office of Southern European Affairs; and Director of Orientation at the Foreign Service Institute. Earlier, Libby worked on the State Department Secretariat Staff, returning later as Director. He has a Bachelor’s Degree from Tufts University in Massachusetts and also studied at the Institut des Etudes Politiques (“Sciences-Po”) in Paris; he earned a Master’s Degree from the National War College, where he was a Distinguished Graduate. He is fluent in Polish and French.