Trump said "immediately": US lifts sanctions on Belarusian airline Belavia

On Thursday, September 11, the White House officially lifted sanctions against the Belarusian airline Belavia. This was announced during a meeting with the self-proclaimed president of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said John Cole, a spokesman for the US President, writes "Pool One".

"I want to make it absolutely official here that we have lifted sanctions against Belavia. It's official"cole emphasized.

He added that this decision was made personally Donald Trump who said: "Do it immediately!".

"Now this decision, which has already been approved, has been made by all the relevant ministries and agencies involved in this work. The State Department, the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Finance, and other organizations involved. This decision has been made." – Cole noted.

For his in words the lifting of sanctions against the Belarusian airline is "just the beginning" of the normalization of bilateral relations between the United States and Belarus.

Meanwhile, Lukashenko, "at the request of the US president and heads of other states" pardoned 14 political prisoners among them, six are Lithuanian citizens, two each from Latvia, Poland and Germany, and one each from France and the United Kingdom.

The United States imposed sanctions on Belavia in June 2022 for violating restrictions imposed after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The sanctions were in effect for 180 days and then extended several times, as the airline continued to operate flights on American-made aircraft, circumventing the restrictions.

• On June 21, U.S. Special Envoy Kellogg meets with Lukashenko in Minsk. After that sergey Tikhanovsky is released from prison – is one of the leaders of the Belarusian opposition.
• On August 15, Trump said that had a "great conversation" with Lukashenko and called him "the highly respected president of Belarus." Trump thanked the dictator for the release of 16 prisoners and discussed the possibility of releasing another 1,300 people.
• In late August, Rzeczpospolita wrote that the United States and Belarus negotiating the lifting of sanctions in particular, they were imposed on Belavia and the Belaruskali potash fertilizer plant.