U.S. holds off ending diplomatic ties with Belarus

[Marulus]

U.S. holds off ending diplomatic ties with Belarus

Matthew Lee, Associated Press

Friday, May 2, 2008

(05-02) 04:00 PDT Washington - --

The United States has warned Belarus that it may order its embassy in Washington and consulate in New York closed, and shut down the U.S. Embassy in Minsk in an escalating tit-for-tat diplomatic spat, officials said.
The State Department was poised to announce those steps Thursday, but the decision was abruptly put off just minutes before Belarus was to be informed they were being taken in retaliation for the expulsion of most of the U.S. Embassy staff in Minsk, the officials said.

The officials, who spoke about the internal deliberations on condition of anonymity, said Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte had signed off Wednesday on the decision to close the Belarusian missions in the United States and the U.S. Embassy in Belarus. Only Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has the authority to reverse such an order.

The moves were delayed to give Belarus time to consider reversing the expulsions, the officials said. The change in plan came so late that the top U.S. diplomat in Belarus, Charge d'Affaires Jonathan Moore, was already at the Foreign Ministry in Minsk to make the notification when he was told to stand down, according to three State Department officials.

The United States is one of the fiercest critics of Belarus' authoritarian president, Alexander Lukashenko, and relations have deteriorated notably this year amid pressure from Washington for Belarus to release political prisoners or face sanctions.

The U.S. ambassador left Minsk in March after Belarus pulled its ambassador from Washington. The U.S. Embassy in Minsk, which had 35 diplomats at the beginning of the year, is now being forced to cut its staff to four.

The State Department has protested the expulsions as "unjustified and unwarranted."

Relations between Minsk and Washington have spiraled downward in recent months, mainly because of U.S. sanctions imposed on a state-controlled oil-processing and chemicals company, Belneftekhim, as well as travel restrictions on Lukashenko and top government officials.
The sanctions are designed to punish Lukashenko, whom U.S. officials routinely describe as "Europe's last dictator," and his government for its heavy-handed treatment of critics.

San Francisco Chronicle

[source]