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White House mulling more sanctions on Russia over chemical attacks in Syria

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White House mulling more sanctions on Russia over chemical attacks in Syria

The American government is currently considering fresh moves to slam Russia with more sanctions after the use of a suspected poison gas attack in Syria which killed dozens of people, including many children and women.

That much information was made known in statement issued by the White House with reports suggesting that the US government has not made a decision on the matter yet.

“We are considering additional sanctions on Russia and a decision will be made in the near future,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said in a statement.

Read also: Further attacks on Syria will cause chaos in int’l ties, Putin warns

She did not say why sanctions would be imposed but the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, said on Sunday that the United States is preparing new sanctions on Russia over its support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

If the U.S. sanctions are enacted, they will be the second such batch in just over a year against Syria’s weapons of mass destruction programme. Assad is a close ally of Moscow.

Meanwhile, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov has said Moscow will not delay its response to new US sanctions, according to Russian state news agency RIA.

Ryabkov’s comments on Monday came in response to remarks made by the US ambassador to the UN, who said on Sunday that Washington will impose new economic sanctions on Russia for their support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Ryabkov said that Russia’s lower house of parliament is considering legislation that would give the Kremlin the power to restrict US imports, RIA reported.

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