Page 9 - ARUBA TODAY

A9
WORLD NEWS Friday 6 april 2018

Poisoned daughter better as UK-Russia dispute at U.N. worsens

By DANICA KIRKA and lies have expelled over 150 pretext that the victim does
EDITH M. LEDERER, Associ- Russian diplomats in a show not cooperate with the
ated Press of solidarity intensified. criminal," he said. "A crime
LONDON (AP) — The daugh- Russia's U.N. Ambassador was committed on British
ter of a former Russian spy Vassily Nebenzia claimed territory, possibly a terror-
poisoned by a nerve agent that Russia that was the vic- ist act, and it is our citizens
said Thursday in her first tim of a hasty, sloppy and who are the victims."
public comment that she's ill-intentioned defamation Moscow has sent home an
recovering, but the interna- campaign by Britain and its equal number of envoys
tional furor over the attack allies. — 150 — in an all-out diplo-
escalated as Russia told the Moscow assumes "with a matic war unseen even at
United Nations Moscow as- high degree of probability" the height of the Cold War.
sumes "with a high degree that the intelligence ser- As part of the diplomatic
of probability" that the in- vices of other countries are row, Russia last week or-
telligence services of other likely responsible for the in- dered 60 U.S. diplomats to
countries are behind it. cident, Ambassador Vassily Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vassily Nebenzia, leave the country by Thurs-
Britain's U.N. Ambassador Nebenzia said. "Everything left, speaks to British Ambassador to the United Nations Karen day in retaliation for Wash-
Karen Piece shot back that confirms this is a coordi- Pierce at the end of a Security Council meeting on the situation ington's expulsion of the
between Britain and Russia Thursday, April 5, 2018 at United Na-
Russia has come up with 24 nated, very well-planned tions headquarters. same number of Russians.
theories on who bears re- campaign" intended "to Associated Press Three buses believed to be
sponsibility for the poisoning discredit and even delegiti- carrying expelled Ameri-
of an ex-spy and his daugh- mize Russia." ing with a witty passage Russia. can diplomats left the U.S.
ter in England, but the Unit- Nebenzia did not name from the book that says: "I During the Security Council Embassy in Moscow early
ed Kingdom has only one the intelligence services believe in as many as six meeting, Nebenzia ques- Thursday after loading their
— that it's highly likely Russia that Russia suspects, but impossible things before tioned the British govern- luggage on trucks. Some
was responsible. said their goal is to accuse breakfast." ment's claims of Russian toted pet carriers.
Yulia Skripal, 33, said in a Moscow of using "a hor- Adding to the intrigue was responsibility by posing a Ahead of the U.N. meeting,
statement released by Brit- rible, inhumane weapon, a recording aired Thursday series of questions. Russian Foreign Minister Ser-
ish police that her "strength of concealing the arsenal by Russian state Rossiya TV He asked why the British gey Lavrov described the
is growing daily" and she of this substance," of violat- of a purported phone call policeman was affected British accusations against
expressed gratitude to ing the Chemical Weapons between Yulia Skripal and by the nerve agent imme- Moscow as a mockery of
those who came to her aid Convention, and putting in her cousin in Russia. In the diately when it took four international law. He sar-
when she and her father, question Russia's "role not call, Yulia Skripal allegedly hours for Skirpal and his castically likened the British
Sergei, were found uncon- only in finding a solution in said she and her father daughter to be affected. accusations to the queen
scious on a bench a month Syria, but anywhere else." were both recovering and He asked what antidotes from Alice in Wonderland
ago. He also warned: "We have in normal health, and that for exposure to Novichok urging "sentence first — ver-
"I am sure you appreciate told our British colleagues her father's health was not the Skripals were given, dict afterward."
that the entire episode is that you are playing with irreparably damaged. where the Skirpals were "The so-called Skripal case
somewhat disorientating, fire and you will be sorry." Rossiya TV said Skripal's for four hours without cell- has been used as a ficti-
and I hope that you'll re- Britain's Pierce said Russia's niece, Viktoria, who lives in phones on the day of the tious, orchestrated pretext
spect my privacy and that 24 theories for the attack Moscow, gave it the pur- attack, and what happed for the unfounded massive
of my family during the pe- include blaming it on terror- ported recording, although to cats and guinea pigs in expulsions of Russian diplo-
riod of my convalescence," ists and saying Britain want- the broadcaster said it the Skirpal's house. mats not only from the U.S.
she said. ed to distract from Brexit, its could not verify its authen- Russia has said it never and Britain, but also from a
The hospital in the English departure from the Europe- ticity. produced Novichok and number of other countries
city of Salisbury confirmed an Union. Moscow has steadfastly completed the destruc- who simply had their arms
that Yulia's health has im- After trading bards about hammered away at Brit- tion of its chemical arsenals twisted," Lavrov said in Mos-
proved, while her 66-year- Sherlock Holmes, Nebenzia ain's account of what befell under international control cow.
old father, Sergei Skripal, re- and Pierce resorted to non- the Skripals on March 4, es- last year. Nebenzia insisted The British government says
mains in critical condition. sensical fanatasy with the pecially the claim that their that Britain is required to al- it relied on a combination
At the United Nations, the Russian ambassador read- exposure to a Novichok low Russia to cooperate in of scientific analysis and
confrontation between ing a passage from Alice in nerve agent developed by the investigation. other intelligence to con-
Russia and Britain and more Wonderland and the Brit- the Soviet Union meant the "Great Britain refuses to clude that the nerve agent
than two dozen Western al- ish ambassador respond- attack was carried out by cooperate with us on the came from Russia. q