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Belarusian Foreign Ministry declares two UK diplomats personae non gratae

The spokesman said that this decision was "necessary and was made by the Belarusian side exclusively due to the confirmed destructive nature of the activity of the said individuals"

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MINSK, November 9. /TASS/. The Belarusian Foreign Ministry has made a decision to declare two diplomats of the UK Embassy personae non gratae, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Anatoly Glaz reported on Monday.

"On November 8, 2020, the Foreign Ministry of the Republic of Belarus due to activity not compatible with the status of a diplomatic agent, the status of a diplomat as well as with goals of stay in the Republic of Belarus made a decision to declare two diplomats of the Embassy of the United Kingdom personae non gratae," the spokesman told the ONT TV channel.

The spokesman said that this decision was "necessary and was made by the Belarusian side exclusively due to the confirmed destructive nature of the activity of the said individuals." "[By making] this decision the Belarusian side is in no way closing the doors for a dialogue with our British colleagues, leaving them open," the spokesman stressed.

The ONT news anchor has identified the diplomats as Deputy Head of Mission Lisa Thumwood and Military Attache Timothy Wight-Boycott. According to the TV channel, the diplomats have already left Belarus.

The TV channel stated that, according to the law enforcement, these diplomats were gathering information on the internal political situation in Belarus and on the protests. Starting this May, they met numerous times with representatives of opposition and non-governmental human rights organizations. The military attache received warnings from Belarusian colleagues but they all went unheeded, the TV channel noted.

The ONT TV channel also claimed that the deputy head of the UK mission coordinated the work of journalists of the BBC Brussels bureau who arrived in Belarus to cover the operations of former presidential candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya’s campaign and the protest rallies.

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