BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

24/04/2008

US calls Belarusian demands to cut embassy staff to 5 "unprecedented and unwarranted"

The Associated Press

MINSK, Belarus: Belarus' demand that the United States cut its staffing at the Minsk embassy to five diplomats is "unprecedented and unwarranted," the embassy said Thursday.

The embassy released the statement a day after the top U.S. diplomat still in Belarus, Charge d'Affaires Jonathan Moore, was summoned by the Foreign Ministry and ordered to give a list of the five diplomats that would remain at the Minsk embassy as of April 30.

"Mr. Moore protested this news, and noted that there would be grave consequences as a result of this unprecedented and unwarranted step by the Belarusian authorities. He added that he would inform the U.S. Department of State in Washington and would provide a reply to the Belarusian requirement in due course," the statement said.

Relations between Minsk and Washington have spiraled downwards in recent months, sparked mainly by the U.S. decision to impose sanctions on a state-controlled oil-processing and chemicals company, Belneftekhim.

The sanctions are designed to punish the President Alexander Lukashenko's government for its heavy-handed treatment of critics and intolerance of dissent.

As a result of the deepening dispute, the U.S. ambassador was forced to leave Belarus in March and the embassy was forced cut its staff from 35 to 17 to match similar cuts Belarus made at its embassy in Washington. The U.S. Embassy has largely stopped issuing visas, as well.

Belarus' top security agency, the KGB, also alleged that the embassy was organizing a spy ring.

Source:

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/04/24/europe/EU-GEN-Belarus-US.php

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