BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

19/03/2008

US may accept Belarus embassy cuts

US is likely to accept Belarus' call to cut its embassy staff in Minsk to avoid breaking all diplomatic ties amid a row over sanctions.

"At this stage, having considered everything, I think it is very important to keep an embassy there," Karen Stewart, the US ambassador to Minsk, said Tuesday.

Stewart, who left the country earlier, also added she has no immediate plans to return and is not sure whether she would be allowed to.

She said the US wanted equal numbers of diplomats working at its embassy in Minsk, where there are about 35 staff, and in the Belarussian embassy in Washington, which employs about 20.

On Monday, the Belarusian foreign ministry said that its call for Stewart's departure had been prompted by the US sanctions against Belarus' state-controlled oil-processing and chemicals company, Belneftekhim.

RZS/PA

Source:

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=48103§ionid=3510203

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