U.S. President Donald Trump has nominated lawyer John Cole for the position of Special Envoy for Belarus. He previously led the U.S. delegation in negotiations with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, LETA reports citing DW.
Trump announced this on Sunday on the Truth Social platform.
Until now, Cole held the position of Deputy Special Envoy to Trump — Kita Kellogg.
"He has already successfully secured the release of 100 hostages and plans to secure the release of another 50," said the U.S. president, commenting on Cole's achievements.
Trump also expressed gratitude to the "highly respected president of Belarus" Alexander Lukashenko for considering the possibility of releasing prisoners.
After Cole's visit to Minsk on September 11 and negotiations with Lukashenko, 52 prisoners were released from Belarusian prisons, including 14 foreign nationals.
With the exception of politician Nikolai Statkevich, all other released individuals have left Belarus.
The U.S. positively assessed the release of prisoners and announced the lifting of sanctions against Belarus's national airline, Belavia, also promising to restore the operation of the U.S. embassy in Minsk.
On November 4, the U.S. Department of the Treasury removed Belavia from the sanctions list and permitted operations related to the aircraft of the Lukashenko family.
Leave a comment