BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS
DATE:
18/03/2008
Belarus urges US to cut embassy staff
Minsk has urged Washington to slash the number of its embassy staff at the Belarusian capital, amid deepening US-Belarus frictions.
"The attention of the representative of the US was again drawn to the strong recommendation of the Belarusian side for the reduction of the number of staff at the embassy in Minsk," said Belarusian Foreign Ministry in a statement on Monday.
The demand made by the ministry, comes while following US' economic restraints on the ex-soviet republic, earlier in the month the American Ambassador Karen Stewart was asked to quit the capital, Minsk.
Prior to imposing the sanctions, US had dubbed the Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko "Europe's last dictator'' and had accused him of authoritarianism.
Last year, US froze the foreign assets of the Belarus' state-controlled oil-processing and chemicals giant Belneftekhim; a move that Minsk denounced as a "crude violation" of international law and created diplomatic tensions between the two countries.
Source:
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=47936§ionid=351020606
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