Russian FM accuses US of violating requirements of UN’s sanctions lists, INF Treaty

The United States are violating the requirements of UN’s sanctions lists and terms of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday.

“I have nothing to add on this concrete situation with US’ set of suspicions. Rumors will stay rumors,” Lavrov said answering a question on whether Iranian Major General Qasem Soleimani visited Moscow. “If we are talking about facts that are not disputed by anybody, then the sanctions regime was openly violated by our American colleagues when they released from the Guantanamo base where dozens of citizens of different countries are held illegally, several people on the UN Security Council’s list against Al-Qaeda [terrorist organization] and affiliated structure,” he added.

“Four people from this list were handed over by US to one of the Middle Eastern countries in exchange for an American servicemen who was captured in the region. However, neither UN Security Council nor the committee monitoring the observation of sanctions were informed about the fact that people on the sanctions list were sent to a country that agreed to accept them. However, it was announced pompously,” Lavrov explained. “By the way, according to our information, these four people are trying or possibly already got to Afghanistan in order to continue doing what they had been doing before Americans captured them.”

“This relates to the question of rumors and facts, how they compare,” the foreign minister said. “However, in the broader sense, we take upon ourselves to implement UN Security Council resolutions not to ease concerns of Americans,” he added. “Americans are concerned about a lot of things. For instance, when they accuse us of violating the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, they have no proof. We ask for facts, and they do not provide them saying ‘You know everything very well, go ahead and explain’.”

Lavrov stressed that at least concrete suspicions based on real facts about US’ violation of INF Treaty are dismissed by Washington. “So let us focus not on American side’s suspicions and not on trying to lift them every time Americans are becoming concerned. Let us focus on concrete facts,” he noted.
“If concerns are well-grounded, we will never walk away from substantial discussions. But we are not going to react to anything so abstract and amorphous every time,” he concluded.