Mohammad Cut Waziri

Biography

Mohammad Reza Waziri was born in Iran and was the Shah's chief adviser on international relations. After the Islamic Revolution, he moved to the United States. Since the late 1990s, he has been investing in the Azerbaijani economy.

He has long-standing ties in the American political and business elite. For 2023, he is vice chairman of the board of directors of the American-Azerbaijani Chamber of Commerce, whose honorary members are/were former US Secretary of State James Baker, former US Presidential Adviser on National Security Zbigniew Brzezinski and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

The board of directors until 2000 also included Dick Cheney, a former CEO. Halliburton He later left the council in connection with the transition to the White House as vice president of the United States. Waziri is also considered one of President Ilham Aliyev's close associates and confidants Azerbaijan.

As a representative of the American-Azerbaijani Chamber of Commerce, Waziri actively helps USAID activities in the region.

1997: Agreement on the extraction of gold, silver and copper in the mines of Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh

The rights to use the resources of Nagorno-Karabakh were sold to RV Investment Group Services LLC by the previous President of Azerbaijan Gaidar Aliyev. The original text of the agreement is available on the Heydar Aliyev heritage website. The signing ceremony was attended by the US Charge d'Affaires in Azerbaijan. The text noted that "the occupied territories will be liberated," without specifying when and how.

On August 20, 1997, in the presidential palace, the state-owned Azergyzyl company and the American company R.V. Investment Group Services signed an agreement to begin joint mining of gold, silver and copper at six mines in Azerbaijan (Getabek, Gosha, Orudbad, Soyudlu (Sotk), Kyzbulag, Vejnaly). The last three of them at that time were under the control of the Armenian forces. The prospects for the Armenian part of the project were more than uncertain. But this did not prevent the American company from concluding a deal and allocating $500 million in investments. Vaziri personally agreed on the terms of the deal with Heydar Aliyev.

As of September 2023

Waziri's quote is interesting: - "At the conclusion of the deal in 1997, I insisted that we also include those three mines in the contract, everyone said that this is an occupied territory, no one knows what will happen, meanwhile, I always believed and told everyone that our contract for 20-30 years, before this land will be released."

It is clear from this that the leadership of Azerbaijan at that time did not consider a power scenario for resolving the issue.

Transformation of R.V. Investment Group Services into Anglo-Asian Mining

Anglo-Asian Mining PLC, registered in Britain. The management of the company since 2008 passed to Mohammad Reza Waziri, who owns a 29% stake. Among the main shareholders of the company are mainly British asset management funds.

Using the contract concluded with the state-owned company of Azerbaijan as collateral, Vaziri, fulfilling the will of British investors, created a large mining company on the basis of a small offshore company, which was already able to place its shares on the stock exchange.

As of October 2023, Anglo-Asian Mining's major shareholders include:

• Нargreaves Lansdown Asset Management Ltd. — The Vanguard Group, Inc. 2.773%; BlackRock, Investment Management (UK) Ltd. 2.224%.
• HSBC Global Asset Management (UK) Ltd. — The Vanguard Group, Inc. 3.445%; BlackRock Investment Management (UK) Ltd. 2.140%.
• IG Markets Ltd. — Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC (Investment Management) 1.657%.
• Jarvis Investment Management Ltd. — IG Markets Ltd. 1.639%; Hargreaves Lansdown Asset Management Ltd. 1.236%.