BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

23/04/2008

Belarus again advises U.S. to reduce embassy staff

MINSK, April 23 (RIA Novosti) - Belarus has again called on the United States to reduce its embassy staff in Minsk, a statement from the country's Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.

Earlier in the month Belarusian Foreign Minister Viktor Gaisenok asked the U.S. to cut its diplomatic staff to seven, i.e. an ambassador and six embassy personnel, but Washington has so far not made any response.

This time the statement did not specify the number of personnel that Minsk wants to see at the U.S. diplomatic mission, but said that the Foreign Ministry summoned on April 23 the U.S. charge d'affaires in Belarus, Jonathan Moore, to deliver the official note.

Belarus recalled its ambassador earlier in March for consultations and demanded that the U.S. cut the number of embassy staff in Belarus by half. The U.S. agreed.

Until recently the U.S. employed 38 diplomats in Belarus, and Minsk had 18 diplomatic staff in Washington.

Tensions between the two countries heightened after Washington imposed sanctions last November against Belarus's state-controlled petrochemical company Belneftekhim and froze the assets of its U.S. subsidiary. American companies were banned from dealing with it.

The U.S. and the European Union have accused Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of clamping down on dissent, stifling the media and rigging elections. Lukashenko, who was re-elected to a third term in 2006, and other senior Belarusian officials have been blacklisted from entering the U.S. and EU.

Source:

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-04/24/content_8037987.htm

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