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JOHANNESBURG — America ambassador to South Africa has accused the nation’s authorities of offering weapons and ammunition to Russia throughout its invasion of Ukraine, escalating the friction between the 2 nations over Russia and the conflict.
The ambassador, Reuben E. Brigety II, instructed reporters on Thursday that Washington has cause to consider {that a} Russian ship that docked close to Cape City at a South African naval base final December, the Girl R, “uploaded weapons and ammunition.”
“We’re assured that weapons had been loaded onto that vessel and I’ll wager my life on the accuracy of that assertion,” Ambassador Brigety stated, in keeping with a clip of his alternate with the information media that aired on the South African information channel Newzroom Afrika.
Throughout an alternate with lawmakers in Parliament on Thursday, President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa stated solely that the matter concerning the Girl R “is being appeared into.”
In a while Thursday, Mr. Ramaphosa’s spokesman, Vincent Magwenya, criticized the ambassador’s assertion, saying that the 2 nations had agreed that an investigation into what occurred with the Girl R can be allowed to run its course and that U.S. intelligence would supply any proof it had.
“It’s subsequently disappointing that the U.S. Ambassador has adopted a counterproductive public posture that undermines the understanding reached on the matter,” Mr. Magwenya stated in a press release.
Mr. Magwenya added that “no proof has been supplied so far to help” allegations in regards to the goal of the ship docking. However that assertion was contradicted by Senator Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat from Maryland.
Senator Van Hollen met with a South African authorities delegation that got here to Washington final week, and he stated in a press release that the visiting officers “indicated that they understood the gravity of our considerations concerning their elevated navy ties with Russia, and had been taking significantly the proof now we have introduced concerning transfers of weapons and ammunition to Russia.”
The South African officers indicated that they might maintain accountable anybody complicit within the transfers, he added.
Whereas america has referred to as on its allies to sentence and isolate Russia, South African officers have refused to take action, citing the help that the African Nationwide Congress, the governing get together, acquired from the Soviet Union within the lengthy struggle towards apartheid and saying that they had been sustaining a impartial stance on the combating in Ukraine.
American and different Western allies, nonetheless, have stated that South Africa has not been impartial and, in truth, has backed Russia. Ambassador Brigety’s allegation that Pretoria is offering ammunition to Moscow is essentially the most pointed diplomatic jab but in an more and more tense relationship. He made the feedback throughout a information convention in Pretoria that was open solely to South African media shops.
Quickly after the ambassador’s remarks South Africa’s forex, the rand, which not too long ago had been falling in worth towards the U.S. greenback, continued its plunge.
Ambassador Brigety’s feedback got here a couple of week after he visited Washington with a delegation of South African officers, who held high-level talks with the Biden administration and lawmakers. The delegation, despatched by Mr. Ramaphosa of South Africa, sought to easy over a number of the variations between the nations.
John Steenhuisen, the chief of the Democratic Alliance, South Africa’s prime opposition get together, referred to as the ambassador’s assertion “a chilling and deeply troubling affirmation that President Cyril Ramaphosa and his authorities are actively concerned within the Russian Federation’s conflict on Ukraine.”
Senator Jim Risch, the rating Republican on the Senate International Relations Committee, referred to as on the Biden administration “to re-evaluate the scope and scale of our present engagement with South Africa’s authorities.”
The American authorities has hinted at retaliating towards South Africa whether it is discovered to have aided Russia’s conflict effort or helped it to evade sanctions. America has a number of choices, together with issuing sanctions and revoking commerce privileges.
Lynsey Chutel contributed reporting.
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