BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS
DATE:
20/03/2008
Belarus urges US to lift sanctions
MINSK, Belarus (AP) - The Belarusian government on Thursday urged the Bush administration to lift sanctions imposed on the authoritarian ex-Soviet state and blamed Washington a deepening diplomatic crisis between the two nations.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Popov said Washington should remove sanctions against Belneftekhim, the country's state-controlled oil-processing and chemicals company, if it wants to normalize relations.
'Belarus is not interested in straining ties. Belarus is not the source of the tension,' he said.
Long-strained relations between the United States and Belarus deteriorated further this month after President Alexander Lukashenko's government recalled its ambassador in Washington for consultations in retaliation against U.S. sanctions.
The move prompted Washington to pull its ambassador.
U.S. officials -- who call Lukashenko 'Europe's last dictator' for his authoritarian rule and intolerance of dissent in the nation of 10 million -- say Belarus must release all political prisoners if it wants to improve ties.
Lukashenko said Western pressure will only make Belarus-Russian ties stronger, he said.
On Wednesday, he lambasted the European Union for what he called its dependency on U.S. foreign policies.
'We absolutely don't accept the European Union walking to the U.S. drum,' he said, according to the state-run BelTA news agency.
However, efforts to achieve a full merger with Russia have foundered, even after Moscow and Minsk signed a union agreement in 1996 that envisaged close political, economic and military ties.
Earlier this year, Russia sharply raised prices for oil exports to Belarus.
Soon after, Belarusian authorities released several opposition activists from prison in what Lukashenko said was a goodwill gesture to the West.
Source:
http://www.forbes.com/markets/feeds/afx/2008/03/20/afx4798998.html
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