From Africa, US warns not to violate anti-Russia sanctions

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
27 Jan 2023 21:59

This comes right after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov concluded his diplomatic tour across the African continent.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen addresses the media after visiting the Ford Assembling Plant in Pretoria, South Africa, Thursday, Jan. 26, 2023 (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

During an official visit to South Africa, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned on Friday that the US would respond very quickly and harshly to violations of anti-Russian sanctions, regardless of the nature of the entity breaching the sanctions.

"Violation of those sanctions by local business or by governments—we would respond to quickly and harshly and we certainly urge that there be compliance with those sanctions," Yellen said during a press conference in South Africa.

She also said in response to a previous question that she had discussed the US sanctions regime with the officials of every country she visited during her tour in Africa.

"We have discussed sanctions really in every country that I’ve visited and my main message is that we take very seriously the sanctions that we’ve placed on Russia in response to its brutal invasion of Ukraine," she said.

Yellen is currently on a tour across the African continent as part of the Biden administration's efforts to balance

Yellen is currently on tour in Africa as part of the Biden administration's effort to catch up the pace with Russia and China amid their growing influence across the continent.

She has already visited Senegal and Zambia and her trip will end with the current one in South Africa.

On Friday, Lavrov said that the West is seeking to restore Africa's colonial dependence as they attempt to break the continent's cooperation with Russia.

"With a persistence worthy of better application, [American, British, and EU states] require African countries not to cooperate with the Russian Federation, not to go against a general discipline, by which they, the West, understand the restoration of colonial dependence, by and large, but already in a new form," Lavrov told journalists after a visit to Eritrea.

Since the start of the conflict, Russia continued to made food deliveries, as well as fertilizers, and energy to Africa as the West was seeking to undermine cooperation via anti-Russian sanctions.