December 30, 2007 (LPAC)--Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko threatened to expel U.S. Ambassador to Minsk Karen Stewart if the U.S. goes ahead with new sanctions against Belarus. Lukashenko's threat came after Stewart said in mid-December that new economic sanctions could be added to the existing ones against Belarusian state companies. "She would be the first to be kicked out," Lukashenko said, according to RIA Novosti. "She attends opposition hangouts and says economic sanctions could be introduced against Belarus, heating up the situation."

On Dec. 17, as LPAC reported then, Belarusian ambassador to the U.S. Mikhail Khvostov charged that, by imposing sanctions on Belneftekhim, a Belarusian state petrochemical concern, in November, the U.S. had violated a 1994 memorandum that the two countries had signed, along with Britain and Russia, that saw Belarus join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty regime and have Soviet-era nuclear weapons on its territory removed to Russia. That memorandum, Khvostov said, includes an obligation by the United States to refrain from imposing economic sanctions on Belarus for political reasons. Lukashenko's threat to expel the U.S. ambassador to Belarus should be seen in that context.

A U.S. intelligence source has told EIR that one reason behind the U.S. action is that the neocons are lobbying to go after Belarus because Belarus is in talks with Russia on a possible confederation. The neocons fear that current Russian president Vladimir Putin could end up president of this new confederation, with Lukashenko remaining president of Belarus, and Putin's protege, Dmitri Medvedev, being president of Russia.

Bruce Jackson, of the neocon outfits Project for a New American Century and the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, is said to be the neocon point man for this operation.