Biden rejects calling Russia a ‘state sponsor of terrorism’
The American administration estimated on Tuesday that it would be counterproductive in the current state to qualify Russia as a “State Sponsoring Terrorism”thus rejecting calls to this effect from kyiv and American parliamentarians.
Asked about this on Monday, US President Joe Biden had dropped a « non » terse, breaking months of American dithering 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 strong way to hold Russia to account” for his invasion of Ukraine.
The official said in particular that this could harm efforts to get humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
Such qualification could also “Know the [coalition] unprecedented multilateralism that has been so effective in holding to account [au président russe Vladimir] Putin and our ability to support Ukraine » in the negotiations, she added.
Coming from the world’s largest economy, qualifying a State as “supporting terrorism” has far-reaching consequences, including exposing U.S. banks and corporations to legal action.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky demanded at the end of June that Russia be recognized as “state sponsor of terrorism”, the day after a Russian strike on a shopping center that killed at least 18 people. For their part, American parliamentarians, including the Democratic speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, pleaded for such a qualification in order to increase the pressure on Moscow more than six months after its invasion of Ukraine.
In mid-August, the Latvian Parliament had qualified Russia as“State sponsor of terrorism”whose acts in Ukraine constitute a “targeted genocide against the Ukrainian people”, in a statement immediately hailed 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.