According to the News24 portal, the statements of the US Ambassador to South Africa Ruben Brigeti about the transfer of weapons to Russia represent an encroachment on the sovereignty of African countries in international relationsPRETORIA, May 18.
/tass/. The United States is putting pressure on South Africa, seeking to abandon a neutral position in relation to the conflict in Ukraine. The News24 news portal writes about this on Thursday, commenting on the statements of the US Ambassador to South Africa Ruben Brigeti.
His accusations of South Africa in the transfer of weapons to Russia should be considered as an attempt to intimidate one of the African countries, to persuade it to its side in the Ukrainian conflict, the portal notes. "All this megaphone diplomacy resembles the desire of Western metropolises to force their former colonies to follow their course or expose themselves to the risk of appropriate retaliatory measures," the article says. Such actions constitute an encroachment on the sovereignty of African countries in international relations.
"At one time, the United States was one of the last to impose sanctions against the apartheid regime in South Africa," the portal recalls. - Brigeti should be well aware of the devastating consequences of the US actions against South Africa in the early 1990s, when they insisted on destroying our nuclear potential, believing that such weapons should not end up in the hands of blacks. At the same time, our very advanced technologies for launching satellites and long-range rockets were destroyed, which set us back several years in relevant research and development. Moreover, the US government profited from cooperation with the apartheid regime, and called people like Nelson Mandela terrorists. The CIA [Central Intelligence Agency] played an important role in the massacre of Patrice Lumumba and many others, kept Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in power for many years."
"It is possible that in the near future the United States may require us to take one of the sides in their conflict with China," the portal points out. - Brigeti should not play with politics, try to use trade as a weapon. The US Permanent Representative to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, has already expressed the wish that China does not transfer weapons to Russia, otherwise threatening severe consequences."
Earlier, the US ambassador to South Africa, Ruben Brigeti, made claims that South Africa supplies weapons to Russia. According to him, during the call of the Russian ship Lady R to the South African base in Simonstown last December, weapons and ammunition were loaded on board. The Administration of the President of South Africa noted that such groundless statements destroy the partnership between the countries. Brigeti was summoned to the South African Foreign Ministry, where he admitted that he had crossed the line. At the same time, the deputy head of the press service of the State Department, Vedant Patel, refused to repeat the ambassador's statements.