US Ambassador holds closed door meeting with MR

Colombo (News 1st): Speaking on Newsline this morning Journalist Malinda Seneviratne noted that he thinks Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe gave an assurance to the Bar Association that all these agreements with the United States will not be signed within this year so it might happen January 1st if he is still in power. He added that it is very interesting that the US Ambassador has sent a letter to President Maithripala Sirisena of getting these things off the ground. Adding to that he noted that why she is so impatient, is because there are no countries that love other countries, they follow their interests. He questioned; "Where do we get represented?" The journalist added that they elect people but they are following some other agenda. Meanwhile, the US Ambassador to Sri Lanka called on Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapaksa at his official residence at Wijerama Mawatha on the 23rd of this month. The meeting happened behind closed doors and was not open to the media. Convener of the Inter-Company Employees Union Wasantha Samarasinghe speaking to the media noted that they are now challenging Gotabaya Rajapaksa to come forward and say that SOFA and ACSA will not be signed. He requested the Rajapaksas to speak if he can of the adverse effects. He added that neither Gotabaya nor Mahinda Rajapaksa will be able to speak a word on this and it is a sure fact that Basil Rajapaksa will not be able to speak at all. Samarasinghe noted that Basil Rajapaksa had said that US citizenship is important. He questioned the Rajapaksas; "Why are US citizens wanting to contest in Sri Lanka?" He noted that Gotabaya Rajapaksa cannot oppose this. He pointed out that one must venerate and kneel before the US flag and obtain citizenship and they must agree to the US laws as a US citizen. Convener Samarasinghe noted that even if a person is recusing US citizenship that person should be given a probation period of 10 years. He said that is how the citizenship will be recused and if the US wants they can call him back. Meanwhile, a document claiming to be the certificate of loss of nationality of the United States of Gotabaya Rajapaksa is being widely shared on social media. The Daily Mirror website had reported that the document was a forgery. It stated that Rajapaksa had become a US citizen on March 13, 2003, and renounced his US citizenship at the US Embassy on July 5, 2019. The certificate carried a red seal dated July 26, 2019, stating “Approved American Embassy Colombo. The Daily Mirror says that Rajapaksa was not in Sri Lanka on July 5. He was in Singapore purportedly recovering from open-heart surgery. Official records viewed by the Daily Mirror also demonstrate that Rajapaksa became a US citizen on January 31, 2003, not in March 2003.