US Ambassador Karen Stewart has occupied high position in US State Department
- 4.08.2008, 15:45
The US Ambassador to Belarus Karen Stewart has been appointed to the position of the Deputy Secretary of State on Democracy, Human Rights and Labour issues.
The Charter’97 press-centre has been informed about that by US Charge d’Affaires in Belarus Jonathan Moore. As said by Jonathan Moore, there hasn’t been a statement about the status of Karen Stewart in Belarus yet.
The US Embassy continues to work in Belarus. I am a US Charge d’Affaires in Belarus, and as before we have diplomatic relations with Belarus. When there is no an ambassador in the country, Charges d’Affaires work. It happened in the history of the US-Belarusian relations before. Everybody knows we have some difficulties in relations with the regime, especially on the issue of the political situation, situation with human rights and political prisoners. I’d like to underline our concern about the situation with the US citizen Emanuel Zeltser who is tried in Minsk now. But we are also underlining our intention to stay and work in Belarus, Jonathan Moore stated to the Charter’97 press-centre.
It should be reminded that the US Department of the Treasury imposed sanctions against Belneftekhim company on 13 November 2007. In particular, the sanctions provide freezing of any bank accounts of these entities that are within US jurisdiction and Belneftekhim representative offices in Germany, Latvia, the Ukraine, Russia, and China, and its wholly-owned US subsidiary Belneftekhim USA, Inc.
According to the guidance to the sanctions issued in March 2008, the sanctions were also extended to the entities, where Belneftekhim has direct or indirect income of at least 50 per cent.
After that ambassador Mikhail Khvastou was recalled from Washington for consultations. On 12 March US ambassador Karen Stewart left Minsk on the insistence of Belarus. The US was recommended to reduce its embassy staff. In response the US embassy suspended visa issuing. 17 American diplomats left Minsk on 27 March.
On 31 March Belarus decided on further reducing of its embassy staff in Washington and proposed the US to do the same. The US refused to cut down the number of its diplomats. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus declared 10 American diplomats persona non grata. They left Belarus on 3 May.