Pompeo To Russia: It Has 60 Days ‘To Return to Compliance’ with INF Treaty, or Else

FROM EIR DAILY ALERT

Pompeo To Russia: It Has 60 Days ‘To Return to Compliance’ with INF Treaty, or Else

Dec. 4, 2018 (EIRNS)—U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced today that Russia has 60 days to come back into compliance with the INF Treaty, or the U.S. will pull out of it. After the NATO foreign ministers meeting in Brussels, Pompeo told reporters that

“the United States today declares it has found Russia in material breach of the treaty and will suspend our obligations as a remedy effective in 60 days unless Russia returns to full and verifiable compliance.”

Only Russia, he claimed, can save the treaty.

“If Russia admits its violations and fully and verifiably comes back into compliance we will, of course, welcome that course of action. But Russia and Russia only can take this step,”

he said.

The only Russian response, so far, has come from Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova who confirmed, after Pompeo’s announcement, that “Russia scrupulously abides by the provisions of the treaty, and the U.S. side knows this,” TASS quoted her as saying.