US adds only Azerbaijan to watchlist of candidates for blacklisting on religious freedom

The United States added Azerbaijan to a watchlist on religious freedom, following fears for Christian heritage after the country seized back Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian enclave, AFP reported.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, releasing an annual index of designations, maintained all 12 countries that had been on the previous year's blacklist, including China, Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

In the sole change, Blinken added Azerbaijan to a watchlist, meaning it will join the blacklist, which carries potential sanctions, without improvements.

In a recent recommendation to the State Department, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom pointed to concerns for the preservation of Christian religious sites in Nagorno-Karabakh, where virtually the entire population of 100,000 ethnic Armenians has fled to Armenia.

Besides Azerbaijan, countries on the aforesaid watchlist are Algeria, the Central African Republic, Comoros, and Vietnam.