BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

31/12/2007

Belarus Threatens US Ambassador With Expulsion

(RTTNews) - Sunday, Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko threatened to expel US ambassador in Minsk if Washington imposes new economic sanctions against the republic.

US ambassador Karen Stewart said in mid-December that the US could impose new economic sanctions in addition to existing restrictions against Belarusian state-run companies.

"Let the American ambassador in Minsk be engaged in her own problems or leave her post ahead of time" the Itar-Tass news agency quoted Lukashenko as saying during a visit to a children's social village.

Lukashenko said the ambassador "will be the first to be kicked out of Belarus" once the possible sanctions affect substantially the Belarussian economy. Lukashenko also threatened that Belarus might terminate the use of the US dollar in the country and switch to other currencies.

"We can survive without the dollar... We are building up reserves in the yen and yuan. We can switch to the euro..." he was quoted as saying.

Source:

http://news.ino.com/headlines/?newsid=123120070178