diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index fc662d8f..3b00dd9e 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@
    * Use 'osc ls /' if you really want to list all projects.
    * This is meant as a proof of concept. I intend to generalize this usage of '.'
      for all osc commands. Feedback welcome.
+ - support http proxies when using python 2.6 or newer (#551004)
  #
  # Features which require OBS 1.7
  #
diff --git a/osc/conf.py b/osc/conf.py
index 9269c6ac..f4644b0c 100644
--- a/osc/conf.py
+++ b/osc/conf.py
@@ -317,14 +317,13 @@ def init_basicauth(config):
 
     global cookiejar
 
-    # HTTPS proxy is not supported by urllib2. It only leads to an error
-    # or, at best, a warning.
-    # https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=214983
-    # https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=298378
-    if 'https_proxy' in os.environ:
-        del os.environ['https_proxy']
-    if 'HTTPS_PROXY' in os.environ:
-        del os.environ['HTTPS_PROXY']
+    if sys.version_info < (2, 6):
+       # HTTPS proxy is not supported in old urllib2. It only leads to an error
+       # or, at best, a warning.
+       if 'https_proxy' in os.environ:
+           del os.environ['https_proxy']
+       if 'HTTPS_PROXY' in os.environ:
+           del os.environ['HTTPS_PROXY']
 
     if config['http_debug']:
         # brute force