Global Courant 2023-05-13 01:55:02
Summoned the US ambassador to Pretoria after saying he was convinced a Russian ship had been collecting weapons from South Africa.
South African officials have responded to US allegations that a Russian ship collected weapons at a naval base near Cape Town late last year.
US Ambassador to South Africa Reuben Brigety said Thursday he was convinced a Russian ship under US sanctions had taken weapons aboard the Simon’s Town base in December, suggesting the transfer was inconsistent with Pretoria’s neutrality stance in Russia’s war against Ukraine. .
Western diplomats expressed concern over South Africa’s naval exercises with Russia and China this year, and the visit of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
South Africa is one of Russia’s main allies on a continent divided over its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, but has said it is impartial and will abstain from voting on UN resolutions on the war.
Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the conflict in Ukraine in a phone call with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Friday, the Kremlin said.
Ramaphosa’s office said Thursday that an inquiry led by a retired judge would investigate the US allegation. On Friday, a minister responsible for arms control and a spokesman for the foreign ministry said South Africa had not authorized arms transfers to Russia in December.
“We have not approved any weapons to Russia … it was not sanctioned or approved by us,” Communications Minister Mondli Gungubele, who chaired the National Conventional Arms Control Committee when the alleged shipment took place, told 702 radio.
He did not say whether an unauthorized shipment had left South Africa.
South Africa’s defense ministry said on Friday it would give its side of the story to the government’s inquiry.
Ambassador summoned
Brigety was summoned on Friday by the South African Foreign Office, which “expressed the government’s utter displeasure at his behavior and statements made yesterday,” a statement from the ministry said.
Brigety admitted he had crossed the line and apologized unreservedly to the government and people of South Africa.
There was no immediate response from the US State Department.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby declined to comment Friday on the specific allegations against South Africa, but reiterated Washington’s position on any country supporting Russia’s war effort.
After leaving Simon’s Town, Refinitiv’s shipping records showed that the ship, the “Lady R”, sailed north to Mozambique, where she spent January 7-11 in the port of Beira before continuing to Port Sudan on the Red River. Sea.
It arrived in Russia’s Black Sea port of Novorossiysk on Feb. 16, the records showed.
The Associated Press news agency reported that records showed the Lady R was affiliated with a company approved by the US to carry arms for the Russian government and aid its war effort.
Washington has warned that countries providing material support to Russia may be barred from entering US markets.
