In Response to Sanctions, Belarus Seeks to Expel U.S. Envoy

[cal04]

Source: Washington Post

Belarus said Friday that the U.S. ambassador should leave the country, a response to sanctions that the United States has imposed on the former Soviet republic because of the authoritarian rule of President Alexander Lukashenko.

"Belarus emphatically recommends that U.S. Ambassador Karen Stewart leave our country," the Belarusan Foreign Ministry said in a statement on its Web site Friday. Belarus recalled its own ambassador from Washington.

State Department spokesman Tom Casey said that Stewart was not being immediately withdrawn from the Belarusan capital. "She is in Minsk, and she'll remain in Minsk while we continue to review," he said. "It's important, we think, to have our embassy there in Minsk and to have high-level diplomatic representation there to engage with the Belarusian government on a number of concerns."

Belarus's moves were prompted by sanctions imposed on the state oil company, Belneftekhim, which the United States charges is personally controlled by Lukashenko. In November, the Treasury Department froze the company's U.S. assets and barred Americans from doing business with it.



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/07/AR2008030701965.html?hpid=topnews