Belarus has threatened Thursday to close the valves of a large pipeline transiting on its soil, in case of new European sanctions.
Le Monde
The tensions continued, Friday, November 12, at the border between Poland and Belarus. For weeks, Europeans have been accusing President Belarusse, Alexander Loukachenko, to fuel the migratory crisis by issuing visa to migrants and by chairing flights, especially from Turkey, to revenge the Western penalties imposed in 2020. The rest of the brutal repression of opponents. The Belarusian leader threatened, Thursday, to respond to possible new European sanctions by interrupting the deliveries of gas transiting on its territory.
This crisis in Central Europe arouses the growing concern of the international community and was the subject of an emergency meeting on the United Nations Security Council on Thursday. At the end of this meeting, several countries, including the United States, France and the United Kingdom, accused Minsk to want to “destabilize neighboring countries” and “divert attention from its own growing violations of human rights “.
The Kremlin promises that gas deliveries to Europe will continue
While the Old-Continent is already facing a soaring energy prices, the Kremlin assured Friday that the Russian gas deliveries to Europe would not be suspended, despite the threats of Belarus to close The valves of a large pipeline transiting on its soil in case of new European sanctions. Brussels has indeed indicated that new sanctions were planned for the beginning of next week.
Russia “is and will remain a country that fulfills all its gas delivery obligations to European consumers,” said Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov.
In a joint declaration published after an emergency meeting of the Security Council, Estonia, France, Ireland, the United States, Norway and the United Kingdom estimated Thursday Evening that the goal of Belarus was also to “destabilize neighboring countries” and to “divert the attention of its own growing human rights violations”. “This tactic is unacceptable and calls for a strong international reaction and cooperation in order to claim accounts [to Belarus],” said the signatories, without however mentioning concrete measures.
Earlier, during a telephone interview with the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, the second in two days, the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, had felt that the settlement of this “serious crisis migration” was by the “restoration of contacts between the EU and [Belarus]”, according to a Kremlin news release.
Syrians, Iraqis and Yemeni forbidden flying to Belarus from Turkey
The nationals of Iraq, Syria and Yemen are prohibited from “buying tickets and boarding for Belarus from Turkish airports,” said the Turkish Aviation Branch on Friday. In a message posted on its Twitter account, it specifies that this measure, due to “illegal crossing problems of the border between Belarus and the European Union”, will remain in force “until further notice”. The main airline in Belarus, Belavia, claimed that it would comply with this restriction.
This announcement is made while a few thousand migrants, originating mainly from the Middle East, are blocked in difficult conditions at the border between Belarus and Poland, the latter prevents them from passing.
Faced with this influx, Poland has deployed 15,000 soldiers, erected a fence surmounted by barbed wire and approved the construction of a wall at the border. Feated from being trained in the crisis, Ukraine, neighboring country of Belarus, announced on Thursday the deployment of 8,500 additional soldiers at the border.
Brussels has been striving for several days to stem those arrivals from migrants in Belarus by contacting countries, including the Middle East, to convince them to prevent people from embarking on flights to Minsk. Turkey is the first country to take such a measure. Istanbul, the largest Turkish city, has two international airports that make it a major hub of air traffic between the Near East and Europe.