“Everybody’s patience with Russia has run out,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said in Washington on Monday, blaming Vladimir Putin’s government for undermining the fight against Islamic State and for indiscriminate bombing that has killed civilians and targeted hospitals in Syria. “Russians have been complicit” in the Syrian tragedy, Earnest said, and “there is nothing more for the United States and Russia to talk about.”
The U.S. announced Monday it was withdrawing personnel who had been dispatched to the Middle East in anticipation that a Syrian cease-fire deal reached Sept. 9 would go into effect, a move that would have paved the way toward greater coordination between the U.S. and Russian militaries. That followed Putin’s decision earlier in the day to withdraw from a 2000 accord that committed both countries to eliminating stockpiles of plutonium used as the core material in some types of nuclear weapons.
‘Forced Measure’
While Washington’s decision causes “deep disappointment,” the U.S. never fulfilled a commitment to separate moderate Syrian rebels from terrorist groups, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a website statement late Monday. “We urge the U.S. to assess the situation once more in light of how their actions appear before the world. The stakes are very high.”
Halting the plutonium pact is a “forced measure,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said, according to the ministry’s website. Russia viewed the treaty as an “important step” toward nuclear disarmament, he said. Putin’s decree accused the U.S. of “unfriendly” actions that posed a “threat to strategic stability.”
The U.S. said it remains committed to the agreement and disputed Lavrov’s statement……..http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-10-03/u-s-russian-ties-crumble-under-weight-of-syria-nuclear-pact
nuclear-news 
Leave a comment