European Commission: There Will Be No Negotiations With Belarus 

The European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, said on Thursday that under no circumstances would the bloc negotiate with the Lukashenko regime over the future of migrants stranded along the Polish-Belarusian border.

“There is no question of negotiating with the Lukashenko regime,” Eric Mamer, the European Commission’s chief spokesman, said on Thursday during a joint news conference, the EU Observer reports.

“We will hold technical talks with UN Agencies, particularly the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), with their Belarusian counterpart to facilitate the repatriation of people at the border,” Mamer added.

When asked about outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s discussion with Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko which had taken place the day before, Mamer said the individual member states of the European Union can “have bilateral contacts with anyone they wish, that is absolutely normal in diplomacy.”

The announcement came Thursday after Lukashenko called on outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel to open up a “humanitarian corridor” that would allow thousands of migrants to make their way from Belarus to Germany.

Iraq’s Ministry of Transportation confirmed on Thursday that some 400 Iraqis who had previously been stranded in Belarus arrived home in the Kurdish city of Erbil after being placed on voluntary repatriation flights.