15th March, 2018
The West seeks to link the poisoning of former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal to the issue of chemical weapons use in Syria, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Thursday.
“After all, what kind of logic was voiced yesterday and what logic is articulated by the so-called expert community? Damascus uses chemical weapons, Russia supports it.
“The final point in this is that Russia, Moscow, used chemicals in the UK … This is one of the tracks of this campaign – to link all these elements and to finish the story about chemical weapons in Syria, no one conceals it,” Zakharova told a news conference.
According to her, the recent developments are “a part of a well-thought-out plan.”
Earlier, Beijing said it hoped that Moscow and London will be able to settle the situation around the poisoning of Skripal on the basis of international norms and mutual respect through dialogue.
Foreign Ministry Spokesman Lu Kang said Thursday: “we have noted the statements of Russia and the UK on this issue, and we hope that all the parties concerned, taking into account the facts and strictly following the principles of the UN Charter and relevant international norms, will be able to settle their differences through negotiations on the basis of mutual respect.”
He stressed that maintaining cooperation and communication between the permanent members of the UN Security Council was of crucial importance.
On Monday, UK Prime Minister Theresa May said it was “highly likely” that Russia was responsible for last week’s attack on Skripal, since the substance used to poison the officer and his daughter Yulia was identified as a Novichok class, military-grade nerve agent developed in Russia.
The head of the UK government demanded that Moscow provide explanations within two days.
On Wednesday, May addressed the UK parliament and announced the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats and suspension of all planned high-level bilateral meetings with Russia.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has stressed that Moscow is ready to cooperate on the investigation but needed to have access to the case materials, including samples of the substance in question.