By RIA Novosti
Minsk : The United States will cut its embassy staff in Belarus in line with the country’s demands as bilateral relations plunge to a new low, the top U.S. diplomat in the ex-Soviet state said on Tuesday.
Belarus demanded last week, citing the Vienna Convention, that the number of the U.S. diplomatic staff be decreased to ensure that both countries have equal numbers of diplomats.
“The United States views this demand as groundless and inconsistent. But it will abide by it and the number of diplomats in Belarus will be reduced to 17 by the end of the day on March 27,” Jonathan Moore, the U.S. charge d’affaires in Belarus, said.
The U.S. employs 38 diplomats in Belarus, and Minsk has 18 diplomatic staff in Washington. Belarus has accused Americans of interfering in its domestic affairs.
Tensions between the two countries heightened after Washington imposed sanctions last November against Belarus’s state-controlled petrochemical company Belneftekhim and froze the assets of its U.S. subsidiary. American companies were banned from dealing with it.
Belarusian longtime leader Alexander Lukashenko, dubbed by Washington “Europe’s last dictator” for clamping down on dissent and stifling the media, is currently barred, along with other senior officials, from entering the U.S. and the European Union.
Earlier this month, Washington recalled its ambassador from Belarus following pressure from the country’s authorities. The Belarusian ambassador to the U.S. had been summoned home earlier.
The U.S. Embassy in Belarus was reported to have suspended issuing visas to Belarusians.
In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack confirmed that staffing levels would be reduced, regretting that Belarus “has taken a path of confrontation and isolation rather than a path of engagement and democratic reform.”