BULGARIA: Rice condemns Belarus and calls for UN Security Council action on Iran, at NATO meeting in Sofia

Record ID: 838370

  • Title: BULGARIA: Rice condemns Belarus and calls for UN Security Council action on Iran, at NATO meeting in Sofia
  • Date: 28th April 2006
  • Summary: (BN14) SOFIA, BULGARIA (APRIL 27, 2006) (REUTERS) MEDIA LISTENING
  • Embargoed: 13th May 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Bulgaria
  • City:
  • Country: Bulgaria
  • Topics: International Relations,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVADGCJMGR9B4XBCR5EBHZ35SRYK
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  • Story Text: U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has condemned the government of Belarus for sentencing the country's main opposition leader to prison for leading a rally it said was unlawful.
    Speaking at a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia on Thursday (April 27), Rice said the Belarussian government had been reprehensible for sentencing Alexander Milinkevich to 15 days in prison.
    "The United States roundly condemns this act and sincerely hopes that the Belarussian government will accept the will of the international community that it act in accordance with accepted international principles when it comes to the treatment of political opposition," Rice told a news conference following the first day of talks at the conference.
    Milinkevich has become a focus for opposition to Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko, accused in the West of crushing dissent in his state lying between Russia and three European Union members.
    The EU, which said Lukashenko's landslide re-election last month was blatantly rigged, demanded Milinkevich's immediate release.
    Rice also used the opportunity of the NATO meeting to say the United Nations Security Council must be ready to take action on Iran over any failure to comply with international demands to curb its nuclear ambitions. She said it was highly unlikely Tehran would comply with international demands that it suspend uranium enrichment.
    "I think it goes without saying that the United States believes, and I think that there are others that believe that in order to be credible, the Security Council of course has to act. The Security Council is the primary and most important institution for the maintenance of peace and stability and security and it cannot have its word and its will simply ignored by a member state," she said.
    But despite her strong words, Rice still made it clear that the United States supported a diplomatic solution to the situation.
    "The president of the United States doesn't take any of his options off the table, but we are committed to a diplomatic course that should, with enough unity and with enough strength and with enough common purpose make it possible to convince the Iranian government that they are not on a course that will lead to anything but isolation," she said.
    Earlier on Thursday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a rally in northwest Iran that the country would pursue uranium enrichment in defiance of outside pressure.
    Mohamed ElBaradei, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), is widely expected to tell the Security Council and the agency's board on Friday (April 28) that Iran has not stopped purifying uranium or fully answered IAEA queries from a month ago.
    As an April 30 deadline for a peace deal approaches in Sudan, Rice said NATO had discussed the need for international help for the Darfur region.
    "And so NATO has made clear that it stands ready to be helpful, first of all as it has been to the AU (African Union) mission and I think that's the first order of business. But also, there needs to be a UN blue-hatted mission, which is more sustainable and can be more robust," she said.
    AU mediators presented an 85-page draft peace settlement for Darfur late on Tuesday (April 25) and the warring parties are under intense pressure to break months of deadlock.
    The draft agreement is the result of close to two years of arduous negotiations between the government and two Darfur rebel groups. It covers the three areas of security, power-sharing and wealth-sharing that are key to ending the three-year conflict.
    On Friday, the foreign ministers will consider the possible future NATO membership of the former Soviet Ukraine. They are focusing on political uncertainty in Ukraine after a March parliamentary election.
    Rice said NATO has an open door policy towards membership for countries that are able to meet the necessary criteria.
    "The Ukrainian government and the Ukrainian people will have to decide whether or not this is something that they wish to pursue. And they will also have to work very hard I think to meet the criteria," she said.
    NATO has given no commitments to a timetable for Ukrainian membership, but Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko said he believed his country would be able to secure a "Membership Action Plan" (MAP) at the next NATO summit in Riga in November, expected to be attended by U.S. President George W. Bush among others.
    A Membership Action Plan is one step short of an invitation to join NATO, although it does not make membership automatic.
    But while the foreign ministers were meeting on Thursday, nearly 5,000 Bulgarian nationalists marched on the U.S. embassy in Sofia, protesting against planned U.S. military bases in Bulgaria.
    Protesters from the ultranationalist "Ataka" ('Attack') party, a key opposition group which unexpectedly entered parliament in last year's elections, hoisted banners saying "Condi, we don't want your bombs" and "No to the U.S. bases in Bulgaria".
    Rice is due to sign a deal with NATO newcomer Bulgaria to establish three military bases on the Balkan state's territory during her visit.
    Some 200 police with shields and helmets were deployed but the protest was peaceful. Rice, on a five-day visit to Europe and Iraq, was greeted with violent protests this week in Athens.
    The Bulgarian protesters waved national flags, chanted "USA out!" and demanded Sofia hold a referendum on the bases.
    The bases are part of the U.S. military's plan to shift the military focus from Cold-War-era bases in Europe and Asia to smaller installations closer to the Middle East and Africa.
    A recent opinion survey shows 60 percent of the ex-communist country's
    7 million population oppose the bases, which are expected to bring tens of millions of dollars in badly needed foreign investment and create jobs.
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