Blinken had a telephone conversation with the ousted Niger president
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US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken spoke by phone with Niger President Mohamed Bazum, who was ousted during the rebellion. Blinken announced this on his page in X (formerly Twitter).
“Speaked with Nigerian President Bazum to express our continued efforts to find a peaceful resolution to the current constitutional crisis,” the statement said.
Blinken stressed that the US insists on the immediate release of Bazum and his family.
August 7 Niger visited Acting Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, where she met with representatives of the rebels. The negotiations lasted about two hours, the American politician was not able to meet with the detained president, but talked to him by phone. At the end of the meeting, Nuland said that Washington offered the rebels “several options to continue the conversation” and expressed her hope that they would support the US efforts.
The official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, criticized the trip of the American politician, noting that Nuland hoped to resolve the issue with Niger by analogy with Ukraine in 2014. “You won’t find such a banana regime as in Kiev,” – stated Zakharov.
On July 26, the Niger military announced the removal of President Mohamed Bazum and the closure of the borders. At the same time, a nationwide curfew was established and the activities of all institutions of the republic were suspended. The rebels allegedly explained their actions by the deterioration of security, economic and social problems.
The UN Security Council and the United States later called on the rebels to release the country’s democratically elected president. The EU also did not recognize the coup.
The Kremlin expressed concern about the situation in Niger. Press Secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow stands for the speedy restoration of the rule of law in the country and for “restraint on all sides so that this does not lead to human casualties.”
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