US Should Contact with Russia for Resumption of New START Inspections: Envoy
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Russia urges the United States to continue contacts via diplomatic channels in order to resume inspections under the New START treaty as soon as possible, Russian Ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov has said.
"We call on the United States to continue the interaction through diplomatic channels - instead of feeding the media with misleading statements - in order to resume inspection activities as soon as possible and in conformity with the New START Treaty’s principle of equality," the Russian embassy quoted the ambassador as saying in its Telegram channel, TASS reported.
Commenting on US officials’ remarks about linking the talks on a new framework to follow New START to the resumption of inspection activities under the Treaty, Antonov said: "We believe this way of raising the issue is inappropriate. The US Side distorts the value of the arms control dialogue, including on the developing of a follow-on agreement to New START."
"The fact that in February Washington made a unilateral decision to freeze the strategic stability dialogue and is now imposing preconditions to restart it shows the US disregard for the NPT," he continued.
"At the core of the problem with resuming New START inspections lies the US anti-Russian sanctions policy that de facto prevents our country from conducting verification activities on the US territory," Antonov said. "The interruption of regular air traffic between Russia and the United States, closure of airspace to our aircrafts by Washington’s European allies, impeding Russian inspection teams and flight crews from obtaining transit visas - all these issues need to be resolved for the verification regime to resume functioning in full."
"Also, we must not forget about the need to settle the remaining differences on the precautionary measures related to COVID-19 pandemic. Ensuring the safety and health of both Russian and US inspectors is our main priority," he said.
Russia earlier informed the United States that it was temporarily pausing inspections at its facilities covered by the New START Treaty. The Russian Foreign Ministry explained that Moscow was forced to resort to such actions "due to Washington’s persistence in implicitly restarting inspections on conditions that do not take into account the existing realities, create unilateral advantages for the United States and actually strip Russia of the right to carry out inspections on US soil.".