U.S. Department of State: Sanctions are not U.S.'s policy with regard to Belarus
Sanctions against Belarus are just an instrument, not the long-term policy of the United States in their approach to this country, said the Director of the Office of Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus Affairs of the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs Lawrence Silverman.
"Imposing of sanctions is not the aim, not the policy, it's an instrument, a way of influence. Obama's administration's policy is not limited to just imposing sanctions. We would definitely like to have other relations with the Belarusian government", - Silverman said in his speech at Brookings Institution on Wednesday, RIA Novosti reports.According to him, the USA had to use sanctions as an instrument of foreign policy in order to make the Belarusian authorities understand that their actions against the December protesters are unacceptable. Also, according to him, an essential role in taking the decision on imposing sanctions was played by the the Belarusian authorities' refusal to prolong the OSCE's mandate in the country, although this organization had cooperated with the Belarusian government successfully in the past.
"However, this is not another policy (with regard to Belarus)... We decided that this (Belarusian authorities' most recent actions) was unacceptable and reacted. Now we want to see if the sanctions work. We closely watch the situation to see whether there would be any changes. We still demand to release all the people detained during protest actions and to withdraw all the accusations against them. Until that, we keep all the sanctions and limitations in force", - the U.S. Department of State's representative said.
