The ambassador of United States in South Africa, reuben brigetyaccused this country of supply arms to Russia during Moscow’s war against Ukraine, despite the neutrality that Pretoria claims to maintain in the conflict.
In a press conference in Pretoria, Brigety assured that South Africa provided weapons to Russia through the Russian ship Lady Rwhich docked at the naval base of Simon’s Townin Cape Town (southwest), in December last year.
“Among the things we noticed was the docking of the cargo ship at the Simon’s Town naval base between December 6 and 8, 2022, which we are sure that he loaded weapons and ammunition on that ship in Simon’s Town while returning to Russia,” said the ambassador, according to the local channel News24.
“Arming the Russians is extremely serious. And we do not consider that this problem is solved. And we would like South Africa to practice its policy of not alignment”, stressed the diplomat.
On how accurate the US intelligence information was that the African country delivered weapons to Russia, Brigety assured that he would bet his life on reliability of that data, according to the South African channel.
The ambassador stressed that the matter was one of the issues of “concern” raised by senior US officials with a high-level South African delegation that recently visited the United States.
In his opinion, it would be “a mistake to underestimate the concerns in Washington,” according to the South African newspaper. TimesLive.
Brigety added that other concerns raised by US officials included the South Africa’s participation in military exercises with Russia and China during the anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine last February.
“We also express our serious concern about the timing of the joint naval exercises in which South Africa participated with Russia and China in South African waters, which coincided with the anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine,” he said.
After these statements were released, Vincent Magwenyaspokesman for the President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosaaffirmed that the Presidency “have taken note of the comments reports attributed to the US ambassador.”
“And we will respond in due time,” Magwenya said on her Twitter account.
The African country claims to have adopted a neutral stance on Russia’s war against Ukraine and has called for dialogue to resolve the conflict.
This position is not only linked to the strategic political and economic role that Moscow has in some African countries, but also to historical reasons such as Russian support for anti-colonial and liberation movements of the 20th century, such as the fight against the segregationist “apartheid” regime. ” in the case of South Africa.
(With information from EFE)
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Source-www.infobae.com