European Union: Pressures on new round of sanctions on Belarus
The European Union is preparing to impose a new round of sanctions on Belarus. What diplomatic sources say.
The European Union (EU) is close to imposing further sanctions on Belarus , targeting some 30 people and entities, including Foreign Minister Belarus and Belavia Airlines, as of next week, three EU diplomats told Reuters .
The EU and NATO accuse President Alexander Lukashenko of using migrants as a weapon to push the West by sending people fleeing the Middle East to Minsk and then to the borders of Poland and the Baltic states.
The new round of sanctions is aimed at Belarussian officials who the EU claims have organized migrant arrivals in retaliation for sanctions imposed on them in Minsk for human rights abuses.
On Wednesday, the 27 EU ambassadors are expected to formally agree that the growing number of migrants along the Belarus-Poland border is tantamount to a "hybrid war" and could serve as a legal basis for building new sanctions.
Minsk, for its part, denies any such operation and rejects all allegations of wrongdoing by Western states. Sanctions on senior officials have so far been ineffective in weakening the government of Lukashenko, who has been in power since 1994 and is a close ally of Moscow.
EU states are also considering extending financial sanctions on Belarus imposed in July targeting the local insurance sector and its main state-owned company, BelarusRe, diplomats said.
The fifth package of asset freezes and travel bans on Belarussian government officials and businesses is expected to be the EU's latest response to the August 2020 escalation of the presidential election dispute with Belarus, for which the West and the opposition accuses Lukashenko.
EU officials, including European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen , are calling for even tougher measures, including with international airlines accused of transporting migrants to Minsk, who were then flown to the border with Belarus.
Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei, who defended Belarus's history at the UN General Assembly in September, is a senior official who is being punished for allegedly issuing Belarusian visas to third-country nationals, especially Syrians and Iranians. said diplomats.
The EU has banned state-owned Belavia Airlines from accessing EU airspace and airports after Minsk forced a Ryanair flight to land to arrest a Belarusian opposition journalist. Now, direct sanctions on the airline would prevent it from being able to lease aircraft from Irish, Romanian and Danish companies.
However, there is debate in the EU as to whether sanctions should only apply to new leases or existing contracts.
The additional sanctions this month will increase the total number of people in custody and travel bans in Belarus to nearly 200 - including Lukashenko and his sons - as well as to more than a dozen institutions and companies.
