BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

01/05/2008

U.S. mulls closing Belarus embassy, official says

By Susan Cornwell

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has warned Belarus it is considering forcing Minsk to withdraw all its diplomats from the United States in retaliation for Belarus' expulsion of 10 U.S. envoys, a U.S. official said on Thursday.

"We made it quite clear both here and in Minsk that one of the options being considered was simply to pull our remaining staff out and then require them to do the same," said the U.S. official, who spoke on condition that he not be named.

The U.S. warning was issued a day after Belarus announced it was expelling the 10 U.S. diplomats in a deepening dispute over human rights and sanctions.

The United States has protested the expulsions as unjustified but has refused to retract economic sanctions on Belarus that Washington imposed last year to back up demands for Minsk to release detainees.

State Department spokesman Tom Casey told reporters the Bush administration was still considering how to respond to Belarus but he did not expect any announcements on Thursday.

"We have told them that we are considering the full range of options in terms of our respective diplomatic presences," Casey told reporters.

"At this point we have not made a decision to formally ask them, or informally ask them, to reduce staff further," Casey said.

He said however that it would be "hard to have a functioning embassy" in Minsk when the expulsions would effectively leave the post with just four U.S. diplomats.

Washington and the 27-member European Union accuse Belarus of flouting democratic freedoms. They have imposed sanctions on the former Soviet republic, including an entry ban on President Alexander Lukashenko, whom they accuse of manipulating votes to secure re-election last year. He has been in power since 1994.

Relations between the United States and Belarus soured in the last year after Washington imposed sanctions on the national oil products firm Belneftekhim. The U.S. ambassador left Belarus in March at the urging of authorities.

Belarus has rejected allegations that it flouts human rights, and says its record is on a par with the United States. Belarus said on Wednesday that the 10 U.S. diplomats must leave because Washington had failed to comply with a demand to reduce the embassy's staff, the second this year.

U.S. officials have said a resumption of dialogue is possible if Belarus releases its most prominent detainee, Alexander Kozulin, jailed for 5-1/2 years for helping stage mass protests against Lukahenkos' re-election.

(Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

Source:

http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN0143797520080501

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