Secretary of State Tillerson is going much farther than the White House in blaming Russia for the poisoning execution of a former spy in Britain.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Monday that the poisoning of an ex-Russian spy in Britain “clearly came from Russia” and “certainly will trigger a response.”
Tillerson said in a statement that he doesn’t know if the Kremlin was aware of the poisoning, but that the nerve agent used in the attack could not have come from any other country.
He called the attack “a really egregious act” and said it was “almost beyond comprehension” that officials of any government would use the poison in a public location.
“From Ukraine to Syria — and now the [United Kingdom] — Russia continues to be an irresponsible force of instability in the world, acting with open disregard for the sovereignty of other states and the life of their citizens,” Tillerson said.
Ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter were found to have been poisoned with a nerve agent in Britain last week.
This is very interesting – he probably means that there will be a response from Britain, because there definitely won’t be one from Trump.
I say that because the White House doesn’t even want to affirm that it came from Russia:
The White House on Monday voiced support for Britain but declined to say directly whether Moscow was responsible for the poisoning.
“Right now we are standing with our U.K. ally. I think they’re still working through even some of the details of that,” press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said at a press briefing. “And we’re going to continue to work with the U.K., and we certainly stand with them throughout this process.”
So is Tillerson basically writing his own pink slip here? I wonder how Trump will take this statement when there are reports that he’s already unhappy with Rexy. AND then there’s Nikki Haley pounding the Putin over Syria too. It’s really tough to see just what our foreign policy is when it has so many conflicting messages…