(MENAFN- AzerNews)
Elnur Enveroglu Read more
The Minister of Foreign Affairs and National Community Abroad,
Ahmed Attaf, expressed his deep regret over the erroneous and
inaccurate information about Algeria in the latest statement by the
US Department of State on the freedom of religion.
According to Azernews, the Algerian Embassy in Azerbaijan has
shared a post about this on its official X page.
Note that on November 30, 2022, in accordance with the
International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, as amended, the
Secretary of State placed Algeria on the Special Watch List for
having engaged in or tolerated severe violations of religious
freedom.
Furthermore, on January 4, 2024, the United States added
Azerbaijan to its Special Watchlist of countries that engage in or
tolerate severe violations of religious freedom and require close
monitoring, a classification that potentially opens the countries
to sanctions from the U.S. government. Releasing his annual index
of designations, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken kept all 12
countries that had been on the previous year's blacklist: Burma,
China, Cuba, the DPRK, Eritrea, Iran, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Russia,
Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan.
"In addition, I have designated Algeria, Azerbaijan, the Central
African Republic, Comoros, and Vietnam as countries for engaging in
or tolerating severe violations of religious freedom," Blinken said
in a statement.
The U.S. religious freedom body USCIRF, in a statement,
'welcomed' the decision to put Azerbaijan on the watchlist. Last
month, USCIRF released a new report that provides an update on
religious freedom conditions in Azerbaijan, saying that although
the country has in recent years ceased some problematic practices
regarding state interference in its people's practice of their
religion or beliefs, the government has "shown little interest in
reforming laws and policies that violate Azerbaijan's international
human rights commitments."
According to USCIRF claims, within the last three years, the
government has twice amended its religion law to introduce new
restrictions on a variety of religious activities.
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