US eases Belarus sanctions as Trump says he'll help US farmers impacted by Iran war

Audio By Carbonatix

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Thursday announced it had eased restrictions on a group of Belarus-linked financial and potash companies in the latest sign of improving ties between the country's autocratic leader, Alexander Lukashenko, and Washington.

The war with Iran has largely stopped the export of nitrogen fertilizers manufactured in the Persian Gulf and limited farmers' access to key fertilizer ingredients. The skyrocketing cost of fertilizer has left some U.S. farmers unable to obtain it at any price.

President Donald Trump said during a Cabinet meeting Thursday that he plans to roll out a “variety” of policies “to support American farmers” as his administration wages war in the Middle East.

Earlier this month, Lukashenko met with Trump’s special envoy for Belarus, John Coale, in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, and ordered the release of 250 political prisoners as part of a deal with Washington to ease some U.S. penalties.

Coale told reporters at the time that the U.S. would lift sanctions imposed on two Belarusian state banks and the Finance Ministry and would remove the top Belarusian producers of potash, a type of fertilizer, from the sanctions list.

Before that White House event, the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control issued a general license that allows certain transactions with companies that would otherwise be banned from doing business with American businesses under the Belarusian sanctions.

Included in the removal list is the Belarussian Bank of Development and Reconstruction and Belinvest-Engineering. Additionally, sanctions on fertilizer companies Belaruskali, Belarusian Potash Company and Agrorozkvit were lifted.

In a statement, the office said it determined, along with the State Department, “that circumstances no longer warrant the prohibitions."

The action does not free up frozen assets tied to the companies. Also, broader sanctions remain in place.