“The South African Ambassador to the United States is no longer welcomed in our wonderful country,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote on social network X on March 14. According to Rubio, Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool is a politician to incite ethnic issues, hate the United States and President Trump.
South African Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool spoke at the South African Embassy in Washington DC in 2013
Mr. Rubio led to an article on conservative news site Britbartwhich said that Mr. Rasool had “touched” speeches to President Donald Trump on ethnic issues.
“We have nothing to discuss with him and so he is considered a welcome person,” Rubio wrote. The reaction of South African Ambassador is unknown. Mr. Rasool presented the National Leader to the White House leader to start the Ambassador for January 13 when Joe Biden was still president.
According to AFP, the deportation of an ambassador is a rare action in the US. This is the latest development of the increasing tensions between the US and South Africa.
In February, President Trump froze US aid to South Africa because he thought that the country had a law that allowed the land confiscation of white farmers and because the lawsuit at the International Justice Court (ICJ) of South Africa on Israel on the conflict in the Gaza Strip.
Last week, Mr. Trump said that South African farmers were welcomed in the United States and criticized the Pretoria government to confiscate the land of white people.
“Any farmer (with the same family) from South Africa, is trying to escape the country for safety reasons, will be invited to the United States with the path to nationality quickly,” Trump wrote on social network Truth Social.
Land ownership is a sensitive issue in South Africa and the government is under pressure to reform. At a conference last month, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said that there was a great phone call with President Trump after the US leadership in January. However, the relationship then seemed to “deviate a little bit”, according to Mr. Ramaphosa.
