UN Security Council to meet Wednesday on Belarus: diplomats

The UN Security Council will hold an informal closed-door meeting Wednesday on Belarus, which is accused of diverting an airliner and arresting a dissident on board, diplomatic sources said. After weathering a wave of protests and Western sanctions last year, Belarus's President Alexander Lukashenko faced extraordinary new pressure over Sunday's rerouting of the Ryanair flight to Minsk and arrest of opposition journalist Roman Protasevich. "We will do a (meeting) tomorrow," one diplomat told AFP on Tuesday, with two other diplomatic sources confirming the plan for the virtual session. Diplomats said it was unlikely the security council could agree at the meeting on a collective statement. Belarus's unwavering supporter Russia was expected to be in opposition, one diplomat said on condition of anonymity. More Western leaders joined calls on Tuesday demanding Protasevich's release, after the EU agreed at a summit on Monday to ban Belarusian airlines from the bloc and called on EU-based carriers not to fly over its airspace. <br/>