FROM EIR DAILY ALERT

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Russian UN Ambassador Nebenzia Responds to British and American Histrionics

March 15, 2018 (EIRNS)—Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia gave a calm but sharply worded response to yesterday’s antics at the UN Security Council, where U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley and British Ambassador Jonathan Allen hurled accusations that Russia is guilty of poisoning former MI6 double agent, former Russian GRU Col. Sergei Skripal and his daughter, and “must be held accountable.” In her usual banshee fashion, Haley warned that if

“we don’t take immediate, concrete measures to address this now, Salisbury [U.K., where the poisoning occurred] will not be the last place we see chemical weapons used.”

Calling British accusations “completely irresponsible,” Nebenzia pointedly asked why the U.K. “dragged” this matter before the UNSC rather than bringing it to the appropriate venue of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) at The Hague. The fact is, he asserted, the U.K. broke protocol on this issue because it feared that the “real experts” at the OPCW wouldn’t be so easily convinced of the so-called evidence. “We asked for samples of the substance used to assist in a joint investigation,” he reported, but “this request was ignored.” He also stated that while Russia had nothing to gain from such an attack, “I can think of a great number of countries that would benefit from such accusations.”

Former military intelligence agent Sergei Skripal had been pardoned and was “no longer a threat to Russia,” Nebenzia argued, but at the same time, he could clearly serve as “the perfect victim who could justify any unthinkable lie, any kind of untruth tarnishing Russia.” He underscored that it is “mandatory”—not optional—that the U.K. provide samples of the nerve gas in question for examination in an investigation.

“We demand material proof of the alleged Russian nerve agent traces from this event. Merely stating there is incontrovertible proof is unacceptable.”