(Washington) The US administration said on Tuesday that it would be counterproductive in the current state to label Russia as a “state sponsor of terrorism”, thus rejecting calls to this effect from Kyiv and US parliamentarians .
Posted yesterday at 4:04 p.m.
Asked about this on Monday, US President Joe Biden had dropped a laconic “no”, breaking months of American procrastination, at least publicly.
On Tuesday, White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre, who was asked to explain President Biden’s response, said such a qualification “was not the most effective or the most strong to hold Russia to account” for its invasion of Ukraine.
The official said in particular that this could harm efforts to get humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
Such qualification could also “undermine the unprecedented multilateral (coalition) that has been so effective in holding (Russian President Vladimir) Putin to account and our ability to support Ukraine” in the negotiations, she added.
Coming from the world’s largest economy, labeling a state as “supporting terrorism” has far-reaching consequences, including exposing US banks and corporations to legal action.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky demanded at the end of June that Russia be recognized as a “State sponsor of terrorism”, the day after a Russian strike on a shopping center that killed at least 18 people.
For their part, US lawmakers, including Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, have pleaded for such qualification in order to increase pressure on Moscow more than six months after its invasion of Ukraine.
In mid-August, the Latvian Parliament had qualified Russia as a “State supporting terrorism”, whose acts in Ukraine constitute a “targeted genocide against the Ukrainian people”, in a statement immediately welcomed by Kyiv and denounced by Moscow.
Only four countries in the world are currently designated by the United States as state sponsors of terrorism: Iran, Syria, North Korea and Cuba.