The leaders of the United States, United Kingdom, France and Germany issued a joint statement condemning this month’s nerve agent attack on a former double agent and the leaders agree Russia was responsible for it.
President Trump, British Prime Minister Theresa May, French President Emmanuel Macron, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel said they “abhor the attack” that took place March 4 in Salisbury, England, and offered their sympathies to British citizens whose lives “have been threatened.”
“This use of a military-grade nerve agent, of a type developed by Russia, constitutes the first offensive use of a nerve agent in Europe since the Second World War,” the leaders said in their joint statement. “It is an assault on UK sovereignty and any such use by a State party is a clear violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention and a breach of international law. It threatens the security of us all.”
Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, were found unconscious on a park bench and remain hospitalized. It was determined the two were poisoned with Novichok, a military-grade nerve agent developed in the former Soviet Union.
May told British Parliament in an address Wednesday she agreed with the conclusion of the British government that Russia was behind the nerve agent incident. The French, German and U.S. governments agreed.
“We share the UK assessment that there is no plausible alternative explanation, and note that Russia’s failure to address the legitimate request by the UK government further underlines its responsibility,” the four leaders said. “We call on Russia to address all questions related to the attack in Salisbury.”
“Our concerns are also heightened against the background of a pattern of earlier irresponsible Russian behavior,” they continued. “We call on Russia to live up to its responsibilities as a member of the UN Security Council to uphold international peace and security.”
In response to the attack, May announced Wednesday the British government is expelling 23 Russian diplomats.
Russia has denied any involvement in the attack and warned the British government’s actions would cause Moscow’s relations with the United Kingdom to deteriorate.
Moscow is expected to take its own retaliatory measures.
“The March 14 statement made by British Prime Minister Theresa May in Parliament on measures to ‘punish’ Russia, under the false pretext of its alleged involvement in the poisoning of Sergey Skripal and his daughter, constitutes an unprecedented, flagrant provocation that undermines the foundations of normal dialogue between our countries,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement Wednesday.
“We believe it is absolutely unacceptable and unworthy of the British Government to seek to further seriously aggravate relations in pursuit of its unseemly political ends, having announced a whole series of hostile measures, including the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats from the country.”
