United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman, Senator Bob Menendez has criticized the USAID for its slow responses.
Addressing USAID Administrator Samantha Power at a Senate hearing, he said that the agency ‘moves slower than molasses’ and asked why it hasn’t airlifted humanitarian supplies to Armenians who are now blockaded in Nagorno-Karabakh.
“Often times USAID moves slower than molasses. Case in point: The humanitarian crisis for Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh is only getting worse. Where are we? Why aren’t we airlifting humanitarian supplies to those Armenians facing Baku’s blockade? We need to respond to events quickly and we also need to address root causes,” Menendez said.
Senator Menendez asked Power to comment on how much assistance Armenia and Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh will receive from the $40,000,000 assistance program envisaged for Eurasia and Central Asia countries under the U.S. budget. He expressed concern that these funds won’t reach the vulnerable Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Power was unable to give an answer, noting that she ‘doesn’t have that figure of the top of my head’. “We’ve conducted two assessment missions to the region to look at the needs specifically in Nagorno-Karabakh,” she added. Menendez told Power to provide him a copy of the assessment. “I’d like to see the assessment. Particularly how you are going to be able to achieve delivering humanitarian assistance in the Lachin Corridor,” Menendez said.
After the hearings, Menendez tweeted: “As I did at Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s recent hearing on USAID's FY24 budget request, I will continue to call for relief for Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh. I will continue to condemn Azerbaijan's Lachin Corridor checkpoint. I will continue to speak out. We cannot be silent.”
