Karen Pierce, UK ambassador and permanent representative to the United Nations in New York, took aim at Russia via a Sherlock Holmes analogy after its failed attempt to have their scientists join the OPCW investigation. In a briefing to reporters ahead of the UN Security Council meeting, she said: "Allowing Russian scientists into an investigation when they are the most likely perpetrators of the crime in Salisbury would be like Scotland Yard inviting in Professor Moriarty, so I don't think that's a tenable way forward." Ms Pierce later said she feared the Russians are aiming to "build a narrative of how they won't accept the OPCW results" when they emerge, adding: "We as UK having nothing to hide, we look forward to the report - which will be given to us as the requesting state party. "We ask what have the Russians got to fear?" Her comments come as British Security Minister, Ben Wallace, insisted that it would soon be “beyond a reasonable doubt” that Moscow carried out the attack on Sergei Scripal, 66, and his daughter, Yulia, 33, on March 4.

Mr Wallace’s proclamation comes as Russia called for a meeting of the United Nations Security Council. Russia’s Foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said the UK has “legitimate questions” to answer about the nerve agent assault on the Skripals. But Mr Wallace said that the investigation’s “roads lead to Russia” as the UK sought to maintain diplomatic pressure on Moscow over the incident. Russia called a meeting of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague on Wednesday to insist its experts must be involved in the testing programme and probe. But it lost the vote after Britain told the extraordinary meeting the demand was a sign the federation was “nervous” of what the inquiries will find.

Russian officials speaking after the meeting concluded said they had presented a “common sense” case and pointed to the “lies by Tony Blair” over Iraq as they criticised the intelligence about the attack. But Mr Wallace told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that comparisons to the flawed intelligence on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq were not valid. He said: “There’s no missing nerve agent that no-one can find – it was used in Salisbury, we had three people seriously ill, two obviously remain in hospital in critical condition, and there is no doubt that we have found nerve agent.” “That nerve agent has been identified to being manufactured we believe in Russia and we believe that the nerve agent, the Novichok type of nerve agent, is only capable of being produced by a nation state, and then we add that to intelligence we hold, we add that to some of the police investigation that’s going on right now, and we can say that roads lead to Russia, that we are beyond reasonable doubt of the view that the Russian state is behind this.”

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has also raised the subject of the “flawed intelligence and dodgy dossiers” behind the Iraq invasion in his response to the Skripal case. Mr Wallace said the Labour leader had seen more intelligence “than the average backbench MP” because he had received a Privy Council briefing on the matter – but added: “The circle of who gets to see very sensitive information is very small because if you leak it or it gets out, people’s lives are put at risk.” Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson – who has come under fire over his handling of the incident – has accused Mr Corbyn of siding with the “Russian spin machine”. </s> The Friday comments by Russian Ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzia followed a hastily-called emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) — at the demand of the US ambassador — in which Washington sought to paint the current Tehran administration as corrupt, incompetent and totalitarian, a spin noted by UN members to be a pretext to dismantling the historic Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) between the P5+1 and Iran.

The P5+1 (for the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (UNSC) China, France, Russia, United Kingdom, United States — plus Germany and the European Union) entered into the agreement with Iran in 2015 as a means to deescalate nuclear tensions in the region.

Many UN members expressed their displeasure with what are considered to be heavy-handed and isolationist tactics by the US to dismantle the key nuclear treaty, an agreement that has been to shown to be largely successful in its aims, according to al Jazeera.

"The United States is abusing the platform of the Security Council," said Russian Ambassador Nebenzia.

"Let Iran deal with its own problems," Nebenzia advised, adding, "The real reason for convening today is not to protect human rights or promote the interests of the Iranian people, but rather a veiled attempt to continue to undermine the Iranian nuclear agreement," cited by the New York Times.

UNSC member France declared that the ongoing Iran demonstrations were not an issue for which the international body required emergency meetings.

"However worrying the events of the last few days in Iran may be they do not constitute per se a threat to international peace and security," French Ambassador to the UN Francois Delattre said, cited by Reuters.

"We must be wary of any attempts to exploit this crisis for personal ends, which would have the diametrically opposed outcome to that which is wished," Delattre added.

Tehran was more to the point, observing what it referred to as a US overreach in the use of the UNSC body.

Iranian Ambassador to the UN Gholamali Khoshroo asserted that the administration of US President Donald Trump — in the form of its current and widely-criticized ambassador Nikki Haley — was abusing its position as a permanent UNSC member in demanding the emergency meeting.

"It is unfortunate that despite the resistance on the part of some of its members, this council has allowed itself to be abused by the current US administration in holding a meeting on an issue that falls outside the scope of its mandate," noted Khoshroo.

Almost a week of sporadically violent protests involving upwards of 50,000 demonstrators in the Middle Eastern country has seen at least 22 killed, as Tehran authorities accuse the United States, Israel, and Saudi Arabia of tacitly fomenting unrest that began in late December 2017. </s> MOSCOW — The Russian government has threatened retaliation over one of the largest mass expulsions of its diplomats in history, after more than 20 countries backed action by the United Kingdom over the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Salisbury.

According to Russian state media Tass, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the government “deeply regretted” the US’s decision to expel to their diplomats, and would analyze the situation before submitting a proposal for retaliatory action to Russian President Vladimir Putin to approve.

“We already stated and reconfirm that Russia has never had any relation to this (poisoning). We will be guided by the principle of reciprocity as before,” Peskov said.

The United States announced Monday it would be expelling 60 Russian diplomats and closing the consulate in Seattle, President Donald Trump’s toughest diplomatic move against Moscow since he took office in 2017.

When the Obama administration expelled 35 diplomats over Russian meddling in the 2016 election, the Russian government told the United States to cut its diplomatic staff inside Russia by 755.

Peskov told Tass the Foreign Ministry would submit possible retaliatory measures to President Vladimir Putin for consideration, saying any final decision would lie with the Russian leader.

In response to the latest expulsion of diplomats, Russia’s United Nations representative Vasily Nebenzia accused the United States of “abusing its rights and obligations” as the host of the UN General Assembly, according to Tass.

Nebenzia said the expulsion of diplomats by the United States would hamper Moscow’s efforts at the international body.

“Of course this is a blow to our mission, but I think we’ll mobilize,” Nebenzia told Tass.

Canada, Ukraine and member states of the European Union joined the United States in expelling more than 100 Russian diplomats on Monday.

British Prime Minister Theresa May called the worldwide backlash the “the largest collective expulsion of Russian intelligence officers in history.”

“We have no disagreement with the Russian people who have achieved so much through their country’s great history. But President Putin’s regime is carrying out acts of aggression against our shared values,” she said Monday.

The United Kingdom and Russia have been locked in a diplomatic fight since May’s government accused Moscow of organizing the poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal in the UK city of Salisbury.

Skripal and his daughter Yulia were both exposed to a potentially deadly nerve agent, according to British authorities, and remain in a critical condition in hospital.

“We assess that more than 130 people in Salisbury could have been potentially exposed to this nerve agent,” May said on Monday, adding the Skripals may never fully recover from the attack.

Russia has repeatedly and strongly denied it was involved in the Salisbury attack and has even suggested the United Kingdom itself could have been behind the poisoning.

As of Tuesday morning, 13 Russian diplomats were expelled from Ukraine, while Canada, Germany, France and Poland each expelled four.

More than a dozen other countries, including Australia, Italy and the Netherlands, have each expelled between one and three Russian diplomats or intelligence officers.

European Council President Donald Trusk wouldn’t rule out on Monday the possibility of further expulsions of diplomats in the days to come.

New Zealand said it would also expel Russian spies — if it had any.

“While other countries have announced they are expelling undeclared Russian intelligence agents, officials have advised there are no individuals here in New Zealand who fit this profile,” said Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in a statement Tuesday. “If there were, we would have already taken action.”

The European Council has joined the United Kingdom and the United States in saying the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter was almost certainly the work of the Russian government.

Senior Trump administration officials told CNN the decision to expel the diplomats wasn’t just taken in response to the attack, but also in protest to Russia’s “steady drumbeat of destabilizing actions.”

The mass expulsion comes less than a week after US President Trump called Putin to congratulate him on his re-election as President of Russia, against the recommendations of his advisers.

A handful of EU countries suggested they wouldn’t be following suit and expelling Russian diplomats, among them Austria and Portugal.

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz tweeted that while he stood behind the European Council’s decision to recall the EU ambassador from Moscow, Austria wanted to be “bridge-builders between East and West and keep communication channels to Russia open.”

Similarly, Portugal expressed its “solidarity with the United Kingdom” over the Salisbury attack, though stopped short of expelling Russian diplomats in a statement.

Turkey also said it would not be taking action, with Deputy Prime Minister and government spokesman Bekir Bozdag telling reporters in Ankara on Monday: “There is a positive and good relation between Turkey and Russia.”

China, a key ally of Russia, has urged countries to “abandon a Cold War mentality.” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters Tuesday that “relevant countries” should “avoid taking any actions that would aggravate the conflict.” </s> Russia has asked for a UN Security Council meeting over the poisoning of a former Russian double agent in Britain, the country's ambassador to the UN announced Wednesday.

Vassily Nebenzia said Russia was requesting a meeting Thursday at 1900 GMT over the British government's implication of Moscow in the nerve agent attack on former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

Nebenzia said the council would soon receive a letter clarifying the Russian position.

The Kremlin has vehemently denied any involvement in the March 4 attack, which Britain says was carried out with a military-grade nerve agent developed by the Soviet Union.

On March 14, the council held an emergency meeting at the request of Britain over the row, which has triggered a wave of tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions and inflamed tensions between Russia and Western governments.

A few days after the poisoning last month British Prime Minister Theresa May blamed Moscow, saying "there is no plausible alternative explanation."

Russia has claimed innocence from the beginning.

The British military facility analyzing the nerve agent used in the attack said Tuesday it was military-grade Novichok, a category of nerve agents developed by the Soviet Union.

However, it said it could not identify the precise source of the nerve agent.

A former colonel in the Russian military intelligence service, Skripal was accused of "high treason" in 2006 for selling information to Britain and sentenced to 13 years in prison.

In 2010, he was exchanged by Russia in a spy swap with Britain and the United States. Moscow received 10 Russian spies held by Washington for Skripal and three others. </s> United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres: “The Cold War is back —with a vengeance but with a difference. The mechanisms and the safeguards to manage the risks of escalation that existed in the past no longer seem to be present.” (April 13, 2018)

The deadly recurrence of Russophobia bears comparison to the psychosis of the Salem witch trials, several centuries ago, and with the pathology of McCarthyism in the USA in the 1950’s.

Today the atmosphere at the UN Security Council resembles the insanity of the witch hunts in Salem, Massachusetts only several hundred years ago. There is a witch hunt, and according to eleven members of the Security Council, the birthplace hatching these witches is Russia (and North Korea). The atmosphere of hysteria, irrationality and demonization overtaking the majority of the members of the Security Council is accurately described by Russian Ambassador Nebenzia as a “collective psychosis.” This primitive behaviour is totally inaccessible to reason, and is perilous.

For the second time since April 5, the UN Security Council, April 18, has squandered its time on the absurd UK allega tion that Russia is responsible for the chemical weapon poisoning of Sergei and Julia Skripalin Salisbury on March 4th. Of course, both Skripals are alive and recovering very well, thank you very much, and except for the unexplained deaths and immediate cremation of two cats and two guinea pigs, the entire affair resembles the theatre of the absurd, except that, once again, Russia has been smeared and defamed, and accused, with insultingly flimsy arguments, of an attempted murder with chemical weapons.

Hoist on its own petard, the UK obviously intended to impress the Security Council with the scrupulous care with which they treated the Skripals, and indeed the Skripals’ entire community, and repeated on both April 5 and April 18 that:

However, the UK’s repeated litany, instead of highlighting exquisite concern for human rights, on the contrary, reveals the UK’s criminal negligence of the human rights of their own citizens, at least 80 of whom were burnt to death during the fire at Grenfell Tower this past year. Friday, July 28, 2017 The New York Times reported:

While Russia had absolutely no motive for committing any attack against the Skripals, spies who had fully served their prison sentences, and were then released, Russia, on the contrary, prior to an election and the hosting of the World Cup, would have every reason to avoid any action which would cast aspersions upon their own country, or discredit their reputation in any way.

Considering the crudity of the UK’s projection onto Russia of responsibility for the Skripal’s dubious indisposition, the glaring discrepancy between the UK’s negligence of the more than 80 deaths of its own citizens at Grenfell Tower, and their fixation upon the two Skripals, in addition to the UK’s unsubstantiated and obsessive repetition that it was “highly likely” that Russia was responsible for the still unidentified cause of the Skripals’ illness, the UK’s unfounded accusations against Russia for use of chemical weapons in the Skripal incident must have an another motive entirely.

This UK manoeuver is, in fact, an attempt to “sheepdip” the Russian government. In the words of US District Attorney James Garrison:

And accusing Russia of the use of chemical weapons in the Skripal affair is intended to create a climate conducive to belief in the accusation that Russia, and its allied Syrian government are responsible for the use of chemical weapons in Douma, in Syria. Again, the Assad government is succeeding in recovering control of the greater part of Syria, and there is absolutely no reason, especially at this crucial time, for Assad to launch a chemical attack against his own people, which he is fully aware will unleash savagery upon his country by the “opposition,” consisting primarily of the US, the UK and France.

Predictably, without any proof whatsoever, and in violation of international law and the United Nations Charter, the US, the UK and France criminally attacked a country, Syria that had not attacked them. These three countries are acting with the barbarism that their vast military arsenals makes not only possible, but tempting. The Syrian people serve as guinea pigs: on April 16, Business Insider headlined:

Again, hoist on its own petard, the UK accuses Russia of using or abetting the use of chemical weapons, ignoring the fact that during the Iraq-Iran war its own ally, the US, supplied Iraq with a huge arsenal of chemical and biological weapons which were used against Iran in the 1980’s on an almost daily basis. The biological weapons the US supplied to Iraq for use against Iran included anthrax and bubonic plague, according to the Washington Post. These US supplied weapons caused horrific suffering among millions of Iranian civilians, and searing memories of this horror remain virulent in Iran today.

Among the most ludicrous allegations made by the UK was the statement:

Aside from the UK’s heinous record, during centuries, for the most horrendous human rights abuses inflicted on their colonial subjects, throughout the British empire, the scandalous contemporary record of the USA in the use of assassinations of foreign leaders, and their subjects would consume a vast library. Suffice it to mention the more than 23 assassination attempts against Cuban President, Fidel Castro, to which the CIA has admitted, since 1950 the targets of the USA’s assassination attempts have included the Congo’s leader, Patrice Lumumba, Indonesia’s President Sukarno, the democratically elected President of Chile, Salvador Allende, Chilean General Rene Schneider, Bolivian President Torres, murdered in Argentina, Chilean General Carlos Prats, to mention only a few of the targets of assassination by the “intelligence” agencies of the USA.

On April 13, just prior to the US, UK and France’s violation of international law and the UN Charter, in their bombing of Syria, Bolivian Ambassador Sasha Llorentty Soliz (image on the right) delivered one of the most courageous and brilliant speeches in UN history, completely unmasking the criminality, hypocrisy and brazen lies which are now the daily tirade to which the Security Council is subjected.

“For some reason, some members of the Security Council are avoiding addressing the main reason for convening this meeting, which is that one State Member has threatened the unilateral use of force in violation of the Charter of the United Nations…Over the past 72 years humankind has built a framework that is not only physical or institutional, but also juridical. Humankind has setup instruments of international law intended precisely to prevent the most powerful from attacking the weakest with impunity so as to establish a balance in the world and prevent grave violations to international peace and security….The Security Council must not be utilized as a sounding board for war propaganda nor interventionism. It should also not be made into a pawn to be sacrificed on the chessboard of war, geopolitics and petty interests…. We believe that this meeting is very important because we are not only discussing an attack on a Member State, or the threat of a military strike against a Member State of the United Nations, but rather because we are living at a time of constant attacks on multilateralism…Let us recall that there is a clear policy and mindset of multilateralism subversion. What happens is that for some the discourse on human rights is used until it no longer serves their interests, and then they violate those rights. My region is a witness to that. We endured Operation Condor, as it was called, during the 1970s, which was planned by the intelligence services of some Member States. When democracy did not suit them, they financed coups d’etat. When they were unhappy with the discourse on human rights, they infringed human rights. When the discourse of democracy was no longer enough, they were ready to finance coups d’etat. The use of unilateral practices leaves behind unhealed wounds, despite the passage of time.” “Some of the members of the Council have spoken on the situation in Iraq and Libya, which I believe are some of the worst crimes that have been committed this century. The invasion of Iraq, with its dire consequences, left more than 1 million dead. The effects of the strikes against Libya and the regime-change policies imposed on it, which, as my colleague from Equatorial Guinea aptly said, they still feel, suffer and endure throughout the entire region of the Sahel and Central Africa. But no one wants to talk about the root causes of these conflicts, and no one will talk about the impunity enjoyed for those serious crimes. It warrants repeating. Those are the most serious crimes committed this century.”

Bolivia’s speech unmasked the “interests” underlying the current witch hunt, the subversion of multilateralism, the abdication by the UK, the US and France of their responsibility for many of the horrific human rights abuses occurring today, and the attempt to foist responsibility for their own crimes onto Russia and North Korea, a demonization opportunistically endorsed by most Western mainstream media, and which will be deceitfully used in an attempt to disguise more horrendous crimes in the future. The cold war is indeed renewed with a vengeance, and in the current climate of chaos and savagery, flooded with more sophisticated nuclear weapons than ever before, we perilously risk the transformation of this cold war into a nuclear exchange with our newly re-created and demonized adversary, Russia, an act of insanity that would become inevitable if the mass hysteria unleashed today, and conspicuous at the United Nations Security Council, is not opposed and ended for all time. And the root of this mass hysteria is in the gross and exponentially increasing economic inequality plaguing the current world, in a global economic system which perpetuates misery and desperation.

Carla Stea is Global Research’s correspondent at United Nations Headquarters, New York, N.Y. </s> Russia has called for the United Nations Security Council to meet on Thursday to discuss the Salisbury attack after it lost a bid to stage a joint investigation with the UK into the poisoning.

Boris Johnson has attacked Moscow for trying to “obscure the truth and confuse the public” about the nerve-agent assault on Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

Russia called a meeting of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague on Wednesday to insist its experts must be involved in the testing programme and probe.

But it lost the vote after Britain told the extraordinary meeting the demand was a sign the federation was “nervous” of what the inquiries will find.

Moscow has asked for an open session of the UN Security Council to be held on Thursday at 8pm UK time.

UK security services have high degree of confidence that they have pinpointed the location of the Russian laboratory that manufactured the nerve agent used in the attack, according to The Times.

A Whitehall source told the newspaper: “We knew pretty much by the time of the first Cobra (the emergency co-ordination briefing that took place the same week) that it was overwhelmingly likely to come from Russia.”

The Foreign Secretary, who has faced claims he exaggerated the evidence against Moscow, said countries around the world “continue to share our assessment” about the nerve-agent attack.

He said: “Russia has had one goal in mind since the attempted murders on UK soil through the use of a military-grade chemical weapon – to obscure the truth and confuse the public.

“The international community has yet again seen through these tactics and robustly defeated Russia’s attempts today to derail the proper international process.”

In a vote at OPCW, six of the 41 members backed Russia while 15 voted against, 17 abstained, two were absent, and one was not entitled to vote.

Nick Heath, deputy British ambassador to The Hague, said Russia had failed again in its attempts to “frustrate the process of justice”.

Russian officials speaking after the meeting concluded said they had presented a “common sense” case and pointed to the “lies by Tony Blair” over Iraq as they criticised the intelligence about the attack.

Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov told Russian news agency Tass said there is “no trust in Great Britain, it is impossible to trust London” after its continuous “misconduct” and the unacceptable rhetoric against Russia.

Tension between Moscow and London has risen a notch after the head of the Porton Down military research facility said scientists had not verified Russia as the source of the substance used in the attack on the Skripals.

Vladimir Putin seized on the comments from the chief executive of the Government’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), Gary Aitkenhead, as he accused the UK of launching an “anti-Russian campaign”.

Mr Johnson attacked Jeremy Corbyn for “playing Russia’s game” after the Labour leader accused him of “exaggeration” over the evidence.

Former Foreign Secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind said he did not think “any harm” has been done by Mr Johnson’s comments.

He told BBC Two’s Newsnight: “We are all familiar that Boris has a looser use of language. This is not the first time that’s happened.” </s> 'I woke up over a week ago now and am glad to say my strength is growing daily,' says Yulia Skripal

LONDON, United Kingdom – The Russian woman who was poisoned in Britain last month with her former spy father said Thursday, April 5, she was recovering, in her first public statement in a case that has sparked a major diplomatic crisis between Moscow and the West.

"I woke up over a week ago now and am glad to say my strength is growing daily," Yulia Skripal was quoted as saying in comments released by the police.

Britain blames Russia for the poisoning of Yulia and Sergei Skripal last month, but Moscow has furiously denied the charges.

Moscow issued a new broadside against Britain and its allies at the United Nations, warning British officials they were "playing with fire" by insisting Russia was behind the attack.

Yulia Skripal said she had found the incident "disorientating", without providing any further details on the attack in her short statement.

She and her father, a former double agent, were found in a critical condition on a public bench in the English city of Salisbury on March 4.

The crisis has led to a wave of tit-for-tat expulsions of diplomats between Moscow and the West.

Russian ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzia, told the council on Thursday that Britain and its allies were waging a "propaganda war" against Moscow.

"It's some sort of theatre of the absurd. Couldn't you come up with a better fake story?" he said. "We have told our British colleagues that 'you're playing with fire and you'll be sorry.'"

Russian state television earlier aired an unverified recording of a phone conversation between Yulia Skripal and her cousin who lives in Moscow.

In the call, a woman introducing herself as Yulia Skripal said she was expecting to be discharged from hospital soon and that her father Sergei was "fine".

The hospital where the pair are being treated said in their latest update last week that Sergei remained in a critical condition.

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov Thursday complained that Britain had failed to provide "coherent answers" to Moscow's questions over the nerve agent attack.

"It will not be possible to ignore the legitimate questions we are asking," he warned hours before the UN meeting.

The Security Council "should look at this problem in every aspect and, I hope, objectively," Lavrov said.

Early Thursday, some 60 US diplomats who were ordered out of Russia left their embassy compound in Moscow.

Russia called a meeting of the global chemical watchdog on Wednesday, April 4, over the Salisbury incident, but failed in its bid to join the probe by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

President Vladimir Putin said on a visit to Ankara that "common sense" must prevail to avoid "this damage in international relations".

Moscow was unable to get the required two-thirds of votes from members to approve a joint investigation at Wednesday's OPCW meeting.

Facing off in The Hague

Wednesday's bid to secure a joint probe saw a day of bitter rhetoric between Moscow and Britain and its western allies.

"The purpose of Russia's ludicrous proposal at The Hague was clear – to undermine the independent, impartial work of the international chemical weapons watchdog," he said, adding that Moscow's main goal was "to obscure the truth and confuse the public."

Britain is carrying out its own probe, with independent technical assistance from OPCW experts.

Sergei Naryshkin, head of Russia's SVR foreign intelligence, warned that both sides must avoid tensions escalating to the dangerous levels of the Cold War.

He called the affair a "grotesque provocation... crudely concocted by the British and American security services."

OPCW experts have already taken on-site samples which are being analyzed in The Hague, as well as in 4 other certified laboratories. The watchdog said it expected the results by early next week.

But in a move hailed as a vindication by Moscow, the British defense laboratory analyzing the nerve agent revealed Tuesday, April 3, that it could not say whether the substance came from Russia.

The Kremlin immediately demanded an apology from Prime Minister Theresa May and her government for implicating Putin in the nerve agent attack, saying this "idiocy has gone too far."

On Thursday, The Times newspaper cited British security sources saying they believe they have pinpointed the location of a Russian laboratory where the nerve agent used in Salisbury was manufactured. – Rappler.com </s> Russian President Vladimir Putin has appointed Vasily Nebenzya as Russia's envoy to the UN. The appointment comes after the sudden death of former ambassador and prominent diplomat Vitaly Churkin in February.Nebenzya, 55, is a career diplomat with almost 35 years of service in the Russian Foreign Ministry. He served in New York as a senior adviser to the Russian envoy to the UN between 1996 and 2000.He also spent five years as Russia's deputy permanent representative in the World Trade Organization. In the early 2010s, he served as the Russian deputy envoy to the UN in Geneva before being promoted to deputy foreign minister in 2013.Nebenzya was nominated to become Russia's next envoy to the UN in mid-April and confirmed by the Russian parliament this month. President Putin signed his appointment to the position on Thursday.The diplomat won the praise of the former director-general of the United Nations Office at Geneva, Sergey Ordzhonikidze, who described his appointment to the post of the Russian UN envoy as a "good choice.""He is a very competent and experienced man," Ordzhonikidze said, adding that the diplomat has a "good understanding of the problems the UN is facing."The official also said he "has no doubts" that the new envoy is capable of "taking a blow.""He is good at repartee," Ordzhonikidze said, as cited by the RIA Novosti news agency."Vasily Nebenzya has a good sense of humor, he is a great conversationalist, well-informed and interested in many issues. I believe he is a very talented and capable man," Ordzhonikidze added.The previous Russian envoy to the UN, Churkin, died in office in February after holding the position for over a decade. He reportedly suffered a heart attack. Churkin was a prominent diplomat who was praised by many of his Russian and Western colleagues. </s> His comments came after the council failed to approve a third draft resolution

Mr Nebenzia told US Ambassador Nikki Haley: “The threats you are proffering that you're stating vis-a-vis Syria should make us seriously worried, all of us, because we could find ourselves on the threshold of some very sad and serious events.

"I would once again ask you, once again beseech you, to refrain from the plans that you're currently developing for Syria.”

His comments came after the council failed to approve a third draft resolution on chemical weapons attacks in Syria.

Fox News' Senior National Security Analyst, Walid Phares, has warned Russia will respond if the US hits back at Syria, but Washington should not get to a “point of direct confrontation”.

Mr Phares told Fox News: “The Russians are today stronger in Syria than they were a year ago and certainly six years ago.

"So they are trying to say to us and our partners that there will be a response maybe directly by the Russians or as they do usually, task the Iranians to do it.”

Russia vetoed a proposal to set up an investigation into chemical weapons use in Syria.

The US-drafted UN resolution would have established a new body to determine whether Syria was responsible for an alleged chemical attack in Douma which killed 70 people.

It is the 12th time Russia has used its veto power at the council to block action targeting Syria.

A draft resolution required nine votes to be adopted in the 15-member council and no veto from the five permanent members, which are the UK, China, France, Russia and the US.

US ambassador Nikki Haley said the United States "went the extra mile" to try and get Russian support.

But Mr Nebenzia accused the US of wanting the resolution to fail to “justify the use of force against Syria”.
Vasily Nebenzia, the Russian ambassador to the United Nations, tells the UN Security Council the United Kingdom has created a "fake story" and says Russia has "told our British colleagues that you are playing with fire and you will be sorry." UK representative to UN Karen Pierce tells the Security Council UK actions "stand up to any scrutiny" and compares Russian requests to join the investigation to an arsonist investigating their own fire.