The U.S. should ask the NATO alliance to convene and discuss a unified response following Russia’s nerve agent attack, Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Ben Sasse, R-Neb., said Thursday.
The two senators made the proposal in a letter to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and CIA Director Mike Pompeo, who President Trump has tapped to become the next secretary of state.
The U.K. expelled 23 Russian diplomats following the attack on British soil of a former spy and his daughter. The U.S., France and Germany joined the NATO ally on Thursday in concluding that Russia was behind it.
“We ask that you prioritize discussions with our NATO allies regarding a collective response to this attack and urge you to consider invoking Article IV of the North Atlantic Treaty to accelerate this dialogue,” McCain and Sasse wrote.
That article of the treaty allows the 29 members to formally bring issues before NATO so they can be discussed and potential action can be taken.
McCain, the Senate Armed Services chairman, and Sasse said the alliance could debate expelling Russian diplomats from other member countries, freezing more Russian assets, or other measures.
“We must make it inescapably clear to Russia that its shadow operations will meet a coordinated NATO response,” they wrote.
