Mike Pompeo Assumed Sanctions Against Belarusian Authorities

The oil supplies from the USA may also be cancelled.

Today, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who has arrived in Prague on a two-day visit, gave an exclusive interview to Radio Svaboda, in which, among other things, he answered questions about the latest developments in Belarus.

- You have condemned the elections in Belarus, as well as violence by law enforcement officials after the elections. What does it mean for the future of American-Belarusian relations, in particular, the supply of American oil to Belarus and the arrival of the U.S. Ambassador in Minsk?

- We will have to work on it. As you said, we are very concerned about the elections and deeply disappointed that they were not more free and more fair. We have seen such behavior before and we are disappointed that it has happened, we have seen violence and the consequences when peaceful protesters were treated in a way that does not correspond to the way they should be treated.

We have not yet decided on the appropriate reaction, but I can tell you: we will work together with our European friends, with our freedom-loving friends, who are equally concerned about what has happened. We want everything to end well for the Belarusian people and we will take appropriate measures.

- Now they are talking about sanctions within the European Union. If you get together and discuss these measures, will you also consider sanctions? Do you plan to stop oil supplies?

- I am sure that we will consider each of these issues. And it's important to define the criteria. What, in our opinion, we can do - and not only the United States unilaterally, but also multilaterally - so that everything ends well for the Belarusian people. Either this will be sanctions, or decisions on the supply of products - it's still to be determined. We are still under the fresh impressions from these elections, and we want to see how the situation will develop in the near future.