UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt is set to reason the EU into imposing new sanctions on Russia as soon as possible.
The statement was made on Tuesday in the British Parliament. Hunt recalled that the United States might take action against Russia as punishment for the use of chemical weapons. According to him, Europe should follow suit.
“I believe that the issue of sanctions will be even more important in the coming months because the US promised to introduce sanctions for the Salisbury incident, and they clearly say that it would be unfair not to follow their path, given that the act [poisoning] was committed on European soil,” Hunt stressed.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump warned Russia against the involvement in the assault on Idlib, the last major stronghold of the Syrian opposition.
On September 4, the independent report produced by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) confirmed the assessment of the United Kingdom in identifying the chemical agent responsible for the death of Dawn Sturgess in Amesbury on 8 July. This was a Novichok nerve agent, of the same kind used in the attempted assassinations of Sergei and Yulia Skripal earlier this year.
“The recklessness of the Russian state in bringing a nerve agent in to the U.K., and total disregard for the safety of the public, is appalling and irresponsible,” Jeremy Hunt said in Tuesday’s statement.
On March 4, Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, were found unconscious at a shopping mall in the English town of Salisbury. The two were taken to hospital in critical condition. The were reportedly poisoned following exposure to an unknown substance. A bit later, British Prime Minister Theresa May said they had been poisoned with Novichok, a military-grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia.
The incident caused a number of rows and triggered a diplomatic war between the West and the Kremlin.
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On June 30, two people collapsed in a house in Amesbury, not far from the town of Salisbury. Dawn Sturgess died in a hospital in July, while her partner, Charlie Rowley, later recovered.
