{"id":60551,"date":"2018-03-13T06:00:50","date_gmt":"2018-03-13T06:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=60551"},"modified":"2018-03-13T06:00:50","modified_gmt":"2018-03-13T06:00:50","slug":"uks-may-says-highly-likely-russia-behind-nerve-attack-spy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/world-news\/uks-may-says-highly-likely-russia-behind-nerve-attack-spy.html","title":{"rendered":"UK’s May says ‘highly likely’ Russia behind nerve attack on spy"},"content":{"rendered":"

UK’s May says ‘highly likely’ Russia behind nerve attack on spy<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Monday it was\u201chighly likely\u201d that Moscow was responsible for the poisoning in England of Russian former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter using a military-grade nerve agent.<\/span><\/p>\n

May told parliament that either the Russian state was directly responsible for the poisoning or it had allowed the nerve agent to get into the hands of others. London has given Russia until the end of Tuesday to explain its use.<\/span><\/p>\n

British officials had identified the substance as being part of the Novichok group of nerve agents that were developed by the Soviet military during the 1970s and 1980s, May said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Skripal, 66, and his 33-year-old daughter, Yulia, have been in hospital in critical condition since being found unconscious on a bench outside a shopping center in the city of Salisbury on March 4.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cShould there be no credible response, we will conclude that this action amounts to an unlawful use of force by the Russian state against the United Kingdom,\u201d she said, calling the attack a\u201creckless and despicable act\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s foreign ministry hit back immediately, saying May\u2019s comments were a\u201ccircus show\u201d and part of a political information campaign against Russia.<\/span><\/p>\n

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the United States had\u201cfull confidence\u201d in Britain\u2019s assessment that Russia was likely responsible.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe agree that those responsible – both those who committed the crime and those who ordered it – must face appropriately serious consequences,\u201d Tillerson said in a statement.<\/span><\/p>\n

Earlier, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the United States stood by America\u2019s\u201cclosest ally,\u201d but she stopped short of blaming Russia for the attack.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the use of any nerve agent was\u201chorrendous and completely unacceptable\u201d and\u201cthis incident is of great concern to NATO\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Relations between Britain and Russia have been strained since the murder in London of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko, who died in 2006 after drinking green tea laced with radioactive polonium-210.<\/span><\/p>\n

On Monday, May said the latest poisoning took place\u201cagainst a backdrop of a well-established pattern of Russian state aggression\u201d and that Britain was ready to take\u201cmuch more extensive measures\u201d against Russia than in the past.<\/span><\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s ambassador to London has been summoned to explain to British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson how the nerve agent came to have been used.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOn Wednesday we will consider in detail the response from the Russian state,\u201d May said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-\u00a0https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-britain-russia\/uks-may-says-highly-likely-russia-behind-nerve-attack-on-spy-idUSKCN1GO0MS<\/span><\/p>\n

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