South Africa summons US ambassador over weapons for Russia allegations
South Africa’s foreign ministry has summoned the U.S. Ambassador to a meeting over allegations he made that the country had provided arms and ammunition to Russia for its war in Ukraine
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — South Africa's foreign ministry summoned the U.S. Ambassador to a meeting Friday over allegations he made a day earlier that the country had provided arms and ammunition to Russia for its war in Ukraine.
Amid the diplomatic fallout over the allegations by the United States, South Africa’s Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor will also speak with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation (effectively the foreign ministry), said in a statement posted by spokesman Clayson Monyela on Twitter.
U.S. Ambassador to South Africa Reuben Brigety said at a press conference Thursday that South Africa had loaded weapons and ammunition onto a sanctioned Russian vessel at the Simon’s Town Naval Base near the city of Cape Town in December last year. The arms were then transported to Russia, Brigety said.
“We (the U.S.) are confident that weapons were loaded into that vessel and I would bet my life on the accuracy of that assertion,” Brigety said. He called South Africa's “arming" of Russia “fundamentally unacceptable.”
