M Mushfiqul Fazal, State Department correspondent
The United States retains the option to impose sanctions on Bangladeshi individuals if they think it as appropriate, US State Department spokesperson Mathew Miller has said.
The country expects that the Bangladesh government will take all necessary actions to maintain the safety and security of all foreign missions and personnel in the country.
Miller made the remarks on Thursday in response to questions from journalist M Mushfiqul Fazal regarding the concern expressed by ambassador Peter Haas over his security and possibility of imposing sanctions against those media who were collaborating the government in its misrule.
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About the concern of US ambassador in Dhaka Peter Haas, the State Department spokesperson said, “So I’m not going to discuss specific details around security at the US embassy or the personnel that work there. I will say that of course the safety and security of our diplomatic personnel is of the utmost importance to us. And per the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, every host country must uphold its obligations to ensure the protection of all diplomatic mission premises and take all diplomatic steps to prevent any attack on personnel.”
Miller further said, “The United States values its relationship with Bangladesh, and we expect that the government will take all necessary actions to maintain the safety and security of all foreign missions and personnel in the country, including ours.”
In response to another question regarding the possibility of imposing visa restriction on media personalities in Bangladesh who were collaborating with the government in its misrule, Miller said, “I’m not going to announce specific steps, preview steps that we might take from the podium. We have taken steps to impose restrictions under the Secretary’s authority against members of law enforcement, the ruling party, and the political opposition who we believe to be responsible for or complicit in undermining free and fair elections in Bangladesh.”
“And as we made clear when we announced this policy on May 24th - that’s when we announced the policy, not the imposition of sanctions on specific individuals - but when we announced that policy, that it could be applied to any Bangladeshi individual who we believe was responsible for or complicit in undermining the democratic process. So we retain the option to impose sanctions on other individuals if and when we believe it’s appropriate,” he added.
NR/
