English

US embassy suspends issuance of visas over Minsk’s request for staff cuts

The US embassy in Minsk has announced that it has temporarily suspended the issuance of visas because of the Belarusian government’s urgent request for staff cuts, BelaPAN said.

“The U.S. Government is in the process of reviewing the request made by the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on March 17 that the U.S. Embassy in Minsk reduce its staffing,” the embassy said on Wednesday. “Therefore, visa processing has been temporarily suspended while our resources are engaged addressing other priorities. Some visa appointments have been postponed. Further information will be provided once the extent of the U.S. Embassy’s ability to provide visa services in Belarus has been determined.”

The US State Department says that Belarus has asked the United States to reduce its embassy staff and threatened to expel some of the 35 US diplomats if it does not, reported The Associated Press.

The Belarusian foreign ministry said in a statement on Monday that Jonathan Moore, deputy chief of the US diplomatic mission, had been called in and told of Belarus’ “urgent recommendation” that the US embassy in Minsk reduce its staff. The ministry did not give a reason for this demand.

Washington is likely to bow to Belarus' call to cut its embassy staff to avoid breaking diplomatic ties altogether amid a row over sanctions, the US ambassador to Minsk, Karen Stewart, said on Tuesday.

As Ms. Stewart told AFP, Minsk wants equal numbers of diplomats working at the US embassy in Minsk, where there are about 35 staff, and in the Belarusian embassy in Washington, which employs about 20.

“At this stage, having considered everything, I think it is very important to keep an embassy there," Karen Stewart said when asked if the United States would respond to Minsk's demands or risk seeing the mission closed.

She said that the staff issue should be resolved the following week, adding, “It is a meaningful cut because we feel like we don't have an overstaffed embassy. We think we are staffed for what is right and appropriate for the responsibilities we have there and for our security concerns. This includes our security people, our Marine Guards and all that."

Ms. Stewart left Belarus on March 12 under pressure from the Belarusian government. She told The Associated Press on Tuesday that she returned to Washington after the government had threatened to expel her in retaliation for the US sanctions against Belarus’ petrochemical conglomerate Belnaftakhim. "I was not expelled, but they made it clear that that would be the next step if I did not leave," she said.

Minsk recalled its ambassador to the USA, Mikhail Khvastow, on March 7 "for consultations" after the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control issued a statement with regard to the applicability of the sanctions, which were imposed by the Department as far back as November 2007 over human rights abuses.

The sanctions included freezing any assets under US jurisdiction belonging to Belnaftakhim and barring US citizens from doing business with Belnaftakhim, and applied to its offices in Germany, Latvia, Ukraine, Russia and China, and its US subsidiary identified as Belneftekhim USA, Inc.

Ms. Stewart said that the United States would still consider loosening its sanctions if Belarus released the remaining political prisoners. "Releasing the political prisoners is the step that opens the door to all sorts of better relations," she said.

Several opposition activists have been released in Belarus since the start of the year in what Alyaksandr Lukashenka called an “unprecedented goodwill step.”