Joe Biden throws climate, peace and democracy under the bus in Azerbaijan

Awarding accommodation rights to the Aliyevs also whitewashes the country's kleptocracy. Many previous host countries have had corruption problems, but not to the same degree as Azerbaijan. Not only is freedom in decline in Azerbaijan, but it is also one of the most corrupt states in the world. Transparency International considers Azerbaijan far more corrupt than the United Arab Emirates or Qatar, for example, and even worse than Russia, Lebanon and Iran. Aliyev's two daughters reportedly control a business empireworth over $13 billion.

Azerbaijan's opportunity to host the conference was due to the rotation system put in place by the United Nations after the climate conference grew in size and prestige, but it was not the only candidate. Armenia, a country whose brand isenvironmentalismalso sought to welcome. Azerbaijan used the Armenian hostages it had seized as bargaining chips, telling intermediaries it would only release them if Armenia dropped its offer. The State Department, keen to broker peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan, urged Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to comply. Heabandoned the offerbut Azerbaijan continued to hold Armenian prisoners and occupy more than 200 square kilometers of land that the international community recognizes as Armenia proper. After the ethnic cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh's millennia-old indigenous Armenian community last year, Azerbaijan also began systematically destroying Armenian heritage throughout the region. Worse still, he is organizing tours of foreign dignitaries in his place, including Washington think tanks and the US ambassador to Bakuto, Disneyland-style, sanitized versions of former colonies. Such tours will become more frequent as Baku seeks to normalize ethnic cleansing. For the White House to bless Azerbaijan for hosting COP29 today would be like allowing Saddam Hussein in Iraq to host an international forum while occupying Kuwait or for the State Department to allow its ambassador in Moscow to carry out a Kremlin-led propaganda tour of Crimea.

Biden makes another mistake in appointing John Podesta to head the American delegation. Podesta replaced John Kerry as Biden's climate envoy, but parts of his resume raise eyebrows. He rose to prominence as Bill Clinton's chief of staff. After Clinton left office, he and his brother Tony co-founded Podesta Associates, Inc. (now the Podesta Group), whichBP accountas among hisbest customers. BP may beAzerbaijan's main Western partnerand appears to be pressuring the UK, and even other Western governments, to ignore the increasingly erratic behavior of President Ilham Aliyev.

That Podesta and the Biden administration more generally are praising the Azerbaijani regime today is a good thing.deeply problematic. The United States appreciates Azerbaijan's leadership. President Ilham Aliyev has appointed a [environmental] team We have aligned our priorities since Azerbaijan agreed to host COP29 just under a year ago, Podestawould have said. If those priorities include stabbing dissidents in France, destroying churches, imprisoning Armenians on fabricated charges, and threatening the existence of their neighbor, then the values ​​are aligned.

It's time forJoe Bidento follow the decision of King Charles III to transmit COP29 to Baku. Just like when the United States boycotted the 2001 World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance in Durban, South Africa, because it had become an orgy of anti-Semitism, absence is sometimes more powerful than participation. It is time to keep Podesta home and signal to one of the most oppressive states in the world that it cannot use the environment and caviar diplomacy to escape its record and actions.

(Michael Rubinis a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and director of policy analysis atMiddle East Forum. A former Pentagon official, Dr. Rubin lived in Iran after the revolution, and in Yemen and Iraq before and after the war. He also spent time with the Taliban before 9/11. For more than a decade, he taught at-sea courses on conflict, culture and terrorism in the Horn of Africa and the Middle East to deployed U.S. Navy and Marine units. Dr. Rubin is the author, co-author, and co-editor of several books exploring diplomacy, Iranian history, Arab culture, Kurdish studies, and Shia politics. The opinions and views expressed are his own.)