{"id":10713,"date":"2022-02-27T09:18:20","date_gmt":"2022-02-27T09:18:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/bnp-rattles-united-states"},"modified":"2022-02-27T10:27:07","modified_gmt":"2022-02-27T10:27:07","slug":"bnp-rattles-united-states","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/bnp-rattles-united-states","title":{"rendered":"BNP rattles United States"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>THE United States is rattled after Lesotho\u2019s deputy foreign affairs minister Machesetsa Mofomobe announced that his Basotho National Party (BNP) will pursue a \u201cLook East\u201d policy.<\/p>\n

The US Embassy wrote Foreign Affairs Minister \u2019Mat\u0161epo Ramakoae last week expressing concern after Mofomobe told party supporters that he was befriending North Korea.<\/p>\n

Attempts to get comment from Ramakoae failed yesterday. North Korea is a sworn enemy of the US. A defiant Mofomobe told a rally in Mafeteng last Sunday that the US should not be allowed to choose the BNP\u2019s friends.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow are we expected to hate the people who used to help us,\u201d Mofomobe said.<\/p>\n

He told the rally that US Ambassador Rebecca Gonzales wrote Ramakoae telling her that the BNP\u2019s ties with North Korea were of serious concern to the US.<\/p>\n

Mofomobe said he wrote to North Korea recently asking for money for election campaigns, saying he is sure they will fund their party. \u201cI know they will give me and the Americans would not, but these people want us to hate them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw a newspaper saying BNP wants closer ties with North Korea,\u201d he said, referring to thepost\u2019s headline last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew the Americans would jump and they have jumped.<\/p>\n

\u201d Mofomobe said when the apartheid South African government wanted to kill Prime Minister Leabua Jonathan, he sought help from the Communist east. Mofomobe said Jonathan also got help from Fidel Castro, the then Cuban leader.<\/p>\n

He also recalled that when Jonathan engaged Kim Il-sung of North Korea and asked for help, \u201cthey sent green boxes of bombs and guns and told our leader to defend himself\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut today we are made to neglect the people who stood with us during hard times and hate them just because the Americans do not like them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday when the BNP wrote the North Korea party, Americans jump,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHey, jump if you want to jump!\u201d He said the North Koreans should be thanked for building the BNP Centre, Setsoto Stadium, and the Government Complex. He said they had also decided with the BNP leader, Chief Thesele \u2019Maseribane, to write to their friends including Fatah.<\/p>\n

Fatah is a Palestinian nationalist social democratic political party and the largest faction of the confederated multi-party Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the second-largest party in the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC).<\/p>\n

He said the BNP is saddened together with Fatah following the death of its leader, Yasser Arafat, whom he said was killed by the Israelis. Israel is the US\u2019s main ally in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Fatah movement leaders are killed every day by the apartheid Israeli government and the world is silent on that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe BNP will not be silent. We shall release a statement soon on the matter,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said he has already held talks with the Palestinian ambassador in South Africa informing her of their decision to be vocal about the Israel killings of the Palestinians.<\/p>\n

He said he is grateful that the Americans are helping Lesotho by sending Peace Corps to work where the need is great in the country and by providing antiretroviral drugs for Basotho living with HIV.<\/p>\n

He however said \u201cthis does not mean the Americans should have the right to dictate to us who we should align ourselves with\u201d. After lambasting the US, Mofomobe begged BNP supporters to vote for him in the leadership contest on June 13.<\/p>\n

Mofomobe said he wants dual citizenship for Basotho adding that their people are being maltreated in South Africa where they work and some have set up families. He also wants the death penalty imposed on those who commit heinous crimes.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Lesotho<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. THE United States is rattled after Lesotho\u2019s deputy foreign affairs minister Machesetsa Mofomobe announced that his Basotho National Party (BNP) will pursue a \u201cLook East\u201d policy. The US Embassy wrote Foreign Affairs Minister \u2019Mat\u0161epo Ramakoae last week expressing concern after Mofomobe told party supporters that he was befriending North Korea. Attempts to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":10712,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,12,16],"tags":[233,246,245],"class_list":["post-10713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-policy","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-lesotho","tag-lesotho"],"yoast_head":"\nBNP rattles United States - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"THE United States is rattled after Lesotho\u2019s deputy foreign affairs minister Machesetsa Mofomobe announced that his Baso ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/bnp-rattles-united-states\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"BNP rattles United States\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"THE United States is rattled after Lesotho\u2019s deputy foreign affairs minister Machesetsa Mofomobe announced that his Baso ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/bnp-rattles-united-states\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-02-27T09:18:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-02-27T10:27:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/02\/img-621b51e0a925f.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"683\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/bnp-rattles-united-states#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/bnp-rattles-united-states\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"BNP rattles United States\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-02-27T09:18:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-02-27T10:27:07+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/bnp-rattles-united-states\"},\"wordCount\":631,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/bnp-rattles-united-states#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/02\/img-621b51e0a925f.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Lesotho\",\"Lesotho\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"policy\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/bnp-rattles-united-states#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/bnp-rattles-united-states\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/bnp-rattles-united-states\",\"name\":\"BNP rattles United States - 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