Russian Envoy Blames US for Destroying Almost All Arms Control Agreements
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The United States has destroyed almost all arms control agreements and derailed strategic dialogue with Moscow, Russian Ambassador to Washington Anatoly Antonov said, commenting on the US Department of State’s annual Compliance Report.
"The same message is repeated year after year: the United States is the only country that is implementing all arms control and nonproliferation agreements in an exemplary manner, with Russia and other US rivals being vicious violators. Any expert with some slightest understanding of the matter would find such reasoning schizophrenic," Antonov said, TASS reported.
"The administration has almost entirely destroyed the arms control and nonproliferation architecture. It has withdrawn from the ABM (Anti-Ballistic Missile), INF (Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces) and Open Skies Treaties. It has derailed the strategic dialogue between the two major nuclear powers. And now it is finishing off the New START Treaty (New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) with its hostile actions toward our country," the Russian envoy added.
According to Antonov, the US Department of State "is stamping - like a broken record - the same allegations, accusing its adversaries of all sins." "Such an approach lost all its content and meaning a long time ago. Well, we are being blamed, for instance, for the ‘lack of transparency’ with regard to the moratorium on nuclear testing. Yet Washington is not only preventing the CTBT (Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty) from coming into force, but is fixing the infrastructure at the Nevada Test Site. What for?" he said.
"Another example is the US' accusations against us in the context of bioresearch. How can we seriously talk about this, given that the Russian Armed Forces did catch the Pentagon illegally implementing its military-biological program in Ukraine, right in the act? Just recently our Parliamentary Commission published a very detailed report on the US activities in violation of the BWC (Biological Weapons Convention)," the Russian ambassador emphasized.
"In a word, the State Department's report turned into pure profanation long ago, with even local experts having stopped paying attention to it. Has anyone ever seen at least one meaningful commentary on the current edition of the document? What is the purpose of continuing to replicate this useless work every single year? Is anyone reading it? Perhaps, only those bored congressmen, for whom such opuses are prepared," Antonov concluded.
