On 20 March, the authoritarian leader of Belarus, Aliaksandr Lukashenka, said the day after his meeting with US special envoy John Cole that a “grand bargain” with the United States of America was being prepared.
Yes, indeed, during the negotiations – there was the third or fourth round – they offered on behalf of Trump to make a grand bargain that would reflect a number of issues that are on the agenda of our negotiations. Am I going to refuse? This is important for Belarus, including me. So I said:I take it as normal, tell Donald that I agree to work out this big deal, to prepare.
Lukashenko also said that he offered the U.S. an option to end the war in Iran. “We outlined our interests and sent the Americans the relevant proposals. As they informed me, they are being worked out. The grand bargain is not only about political prisoners, as they say. Although I keep correcting them that we don’t have political prisoners because we don’t have political articles.”
“I have never asked them for anything in return, even regarding sanctions. Never,” Lukashenko said.
According to him, the agenda of talks with the United States includes not only the work of embassies, but also the topic of nuclear materials. “We are preparing for this big deal with the Americans,” Lukashenko said.
On the eve, U.S. Special Envoy John Cole said after talks with Alexander Lukashenko that the United States lifted sanctions on two Belarusian banks and the Ministry of Finance of Belarus, as well as cancelled the sanctions, which remained, against potash companies Belaruskali, Belarusian Potash Company and Agrorastvor.
The decision on sanctions was announced after the release of 250 political prisoners in Belarus following the meeting between Lukashenko and Cole. It is known that 15 of them were taken out of the country, while 235 will remain in Belarus.
The Belarusian human rights group Viasna said before that there are more than 1,100 political prisoners in the country.
Cole told Reuters he expected all political prisoners in Belarus to be released by the end of this year. If that happens, he said, the U.S. will lift all sanctions imposed on Belarus for its crackdown on protests in 2020.
The US Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said in its report that the US decision to lift sanctions against Belarus would directly contribute to Russia’s economy and, consequently, to its military action in Ukraine.