Pompeo says US could impose sanctions & droop oil deliveries for Belarus amid post-election crackdown

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo hinted that sanctions could also be in retailer for Belarus following the state’s heavy-handed response to opposition protesters, who’ve disputed the results of the latest presidential election.

Requested how Washington would reply to the opposition crackdown throughout an interview with Radio Free Europe on Wednesday, Pompeo mentioned that each sanctions and commerce penalties had been on the desk, suggesting the US may additionally halt oil shipments to the east European nation.

“What’s it that we imagine that we are able to do, not simply the USA unilaterally, however in a multilateral method to ship good outcomes for the Belarusian individuals, whether or not that seems to be sanctions or seems to be making choices about product deliveries?” Pompeo requested rhetorically, including that he was “deeply disillusioned” by the election and its violent aftermath.

These are all issues which might be but to be decided. We’re nonetheless fairly recent off this election and we have to see how issues settle out right here within the close to future.

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The nation’s August 9 presidential election has kicked off a wave of unrest among the many political opposition, who insist that incumbent Alexander Lukashenko’s landslide victory was rigged, conserving him in workplace for his sixth consecutive time period since 1994. Some 4 days after the contentious race, mass protests continued to engulf the capital of Minsk and different cities, seeing violent clashes between demonstrators and safety forces, who’ve made greater than 6,000 arrests in that point.

Although Washington has imposed and eliminated sanctions on Minsk intermittently during the last decade – final scaling again penalties in 2015 after Lukashenko freed various political prisoners – relations between the 2 international locations have improved in recent times, with the US making a minimum of one main oil cargo to Belarus since Could. That will change following Pompeo’s remarks, nonetheless, wherein he additionally mentioned the US would try to lean on its “European mates” to affix the trouble to punish the Lukashenko authorities. Different international locations within the area have already signalled willingness to pursue that objective, with Poland, Latvia and Lithuania threatening to impose sanctions of their very own except they’re permitted to mediate talks between the state and the opposition.

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