Political scientists appreciated the refusal of the United States to issue visas to Belarusians to participate in the Peace Council

On February 21, Western experts commented to Izvestia on the refusal of the United States to issue visas to the Belarusian delegation to participate in the meeting of the Peace Council in Washington. I assess the situation in the range from a bureaucratic mistake to a deliberate demarche.

On February 19, the Belarusian Foreign Ministry reported that the invitation had originally been sent to the head of state, but visas had not been issued to representatives of Minsk. American political scientist Bruce Marks considers the incident a misunderstanding within the system.

According to him, against the background of the partial lifting of sanctions, including restrictions against Belavia airlines, the step with visas looks like a malfunction in the work of the State Department. Marx noted that even if a mistake is made, this will not affect the overall course of possible improvement of relations between Minsk and Washington.

"It's hard to believe that this has happened. The United States is trying to improve its relations with Belarus. The United States has already lifted some sanctions against Belarus, including sanctions against BelAvia, an airline. It seems to me like a bureaucratic mistake," Bruce Marks said.

Another expert, Garland Nixon, sees the incident as a struggle of factions within the American government: one group associated with Donald Trump could be interested in Belarus' participation, while the other is blocking any steps towards Minsk and Moscow. He stressed that such episodes confirm the instability of US foreign policy, when decisions made at the same level can be disrupted already in Washington.

Larry Johnson called the visa refusal either a sign of incompetence or a deliberate demarche. In his opinion, the initiative of the "Peace Council" in such conditions does not look serious, and what happened signals to Minsk that the United States is not yet ready for a real dialogue.

By a subtle calculation: the countries of the Middle East supported the "Peace Council"

While Europe is hostile to the American leader's initiative, his Muslim allies are joining it.

On the same day, Dmitry Drobnitsky, an American political scientist, linked the non-issuance of visas to the Belarusian delegation to the bureaucracy in the United States. He admitted that the current situation could be a sabotage of the decisions of US President Donald Trump. According to him, the American leader wanted the Belarusian delegation to attend the event, but faced resistance from the bureaucratic apparatus of the United States Department of State.

On February 19, the Belarusian Foreign Ministry reported that the United States had not issued visas to the Belarusian delegation to attend a meeting of the Peace Council in Washington. The ministry stressed that initially the invitation from the US president was sent to the head of the Belarusian state.

All important news is on the Izvestia channel in the MAX messenger.