The US President’s National Security Adviser, Jake Sullivan, announced Sunday on CNN that the Joe Biden administration will impose further sanctions on Russian citizens and entities in connection with the poisoning of Alexei Navalny, as well as the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline and the application of reduced tariffs – stressed .
Thus Jake Sullivan referred to a CNN reporter’s question about criticism from her fellow party member, Senate Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Bob Menendez. He pointed out that the Biden administration did not impose new sanctions on Russia in the Navalny case within the deadline set by Congress.
New sanctions against Russia
The president’s adviser said the White House is preparing a new package of restrictions on the issue. They will be approved after ensuring that they relate to the appropriate persons or entities. – We showed from the start that we did not intend to apply a reduced tariff, regardless of whether it is applicable or not [cyberataku na – przyp. red.] Sullivan pointed out that the Solarwinds or election interference or Navalny.
White Housestock struggle
When asked to lift some sanctions on Nord Stream 2, the presidential adviser said criticism of the White House was a “misunderstanding,” as the Biden administration imposed restrictions on several entities associated with the gas pipeline. He also acknowledged that the White House had refrained from imposing sanctions on the “German citizen” and the “Swiss company,” referring to Nord Stream 2 AG and its nominal chief Matthias Warnig, a longtime friend of Vladimir Putin.
– When Biden took office, the gas pipeline was 90 percent complete, which was built in the era [Donalda – red.] trump card. So the question was whether we would take it directly, using our allies and partners. President Biden has said he is not prepared to do so. What we are doing is imposing sanctions every three months on the Russian entities involved in the project. He said we will continue to do so.
PAP / Adam Zimenovic
Relations with North Korea
In another interview on Sunday with ABC Television, Sullivan also referred to the words of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who claimed – reported by the Korean Central News Agency – that Pyongyang is ready for “dialogue and confrontation” with the United States. The White House representative said this was an “interesting signal” but added that a clear declaration of willingness to start talks with North Korea was needed.
“They can send us a clear signal that says ‘Yeah, let’s do it,'” Sullivan said. Let’s sit down and start negotiating. “
In an interview with ABC, he also commented on the state of the negotiations in the case Back to the nuclear deal with IranNoting that there is still a long distance between the two sides on the main issues to be resolved.
The Biden administration has indicated earlier that it wants to end the talks before the inauguration of the new president – Ibrahim Raeesi-elect on Friday. However, as Sullivan pointed out, the elections do not change the situation much, because the main decision-maker in Iran remains the same – Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. – We’ll see if Iranian negotiators And Jake Sullivan said they will come to the next round of talks and make the hard choices that they have to make. Thus, she was referring to the Vienna Six-Party Agreement talks, the next round of which concluded on Sunday.
Main image source: stock struggle
