US lifts sanctions on Belavia airlines and plans to reopen embassy in Minsk
Photo: US lifts sanctions on Belavia airlines (Getty Images)
The United States will soon lift sanctions on the Belarusian Belavia airlines and plans to reopen the US Embassy in Minsk, the Belarusian news agency Belta reports.
“This decision (to lift the sanctions - ed.) was made by the President, who said, ‘Do it immediately.’ The decision, which has already been approved, has been adopted by all relevant ministries and agencies involved in this work,” said the US Presidential Representative John Cole.
In addition, Cole added that lifting sanctions on Belavia is only the beginning.
“I know that we want the embassy (of the US - ed.) to return. I know it will return. This is a matter of the near future. We want to have an ambassador, we want to have the embassy fully staffed here. And we will work on this,” the US Presidential Representative said during a meeting with Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko.
On February 28, 2022, the US State Department ordered US government employees to depart and suspended operations of the embassy in Minsk due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Sanctions against Belavia
In August 2024, the US included Belavia on its sanctions list. Earlier, in June, the US Department of Commerce extended export restrictions on the airlines for 180 days.
The Belarusian airlines are also under European Union sanctions. EU countries imposed restrictions on Belavia in 2021 amid the migration crisis on the EU border and following the forced landing of a Ryanair plane due to a reported bomb threat. Last year, a general jurisdiction court of the European Union rejected Belavia’s lawsuit seeking the removal of EU sanctions.
