Antigua and Barbuda’s Ambassador to the United States and Organization of American States, Sir Ronald Sanders

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Antigua and Barbuda’s Ambassador to the United States and Organization of American States, Sir Ronald Sanders, has been in discussions with the US with the hopes of having them remove sanctions from the Alfa Nero

The Superyacht is believed to be owned by a sanctioned Russian oligarch but Sanders told an interview with State Media ABS last night that removing sanctions is much harder than getting them placed.

“Getting them [a sanction] placed is a simple signing of a piece of paper. Getting them removed, however, is a process that involves the United States Congress, and that process has been in place now for some time,” he said.

He said discussions started several weeks ago, with the United States Treasury, the State Department, and the office concerned with imposing and maintaining the sanctions on the ship.

“So until the Antigua government and the Port Authority took possession of the ship, that ship was still very much the property of Europe as far as the United States Treasury Department is concerned. Now, the process we have to go through is to get the United States to delist the Alfa Nero from its sanctions list. And that is the process in which we are now involved. We have retained a US Attorney with great experience in these matters,” he said.

The lawyer he said has already drafted a request for reconsideration.

“That request for reconsideration is for the US Treasury Department to reconsider the classification of Alfa Nero as a sanctioned vessel. So that document has been prepared. It has been sent to Antigua for review by the Attorney General’s chambers” he added.

Sanders could not tell when the sanctions will be lifted or if at all but he said Antigua and Barbuda is doing “everything on our end”

He said the US has been very cooperative in the negotiations and talks.

“One of the things they explained to us today is that they have far more resources to impose sanctions on people than they have resources to remove the sanctions. In other words, the United States Congress is much more interested in sanctioning people from all over the world. It’s not just Russian oligarchs that are being sanctioned. But we do have the cooperation of the Treasury Department in trying to speed up that process, which unfortunately does include the Congress as well. And that can take some time,” he added