MOSCOW, April 10. /TASS/. The Kremlin assumes that there is no yet information about new potential US sanctions against Russia related to the Syrian crisis, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday, adding that in this regard there is no reasonable basis for potential reciprocal measures.
"Having no information about what it is all about, and we really don’t know what it is all about, it is difficult to speak about any response," Peskov said when asked about Moscow’s potential response to new sanctions. He added that the US Permanent Representative to the United Nations Nikki Haley earlier said about new sanctions against Russia, though "we have not heard any announcements of (US President Donald - TASS) Trump regarding the issue or any of his representatives yet."
As reported earlier the US Permanent Representative to the UN Nikki Haley said in an interview with CNN that the US president was planning to raise the issue of imposing sanctions on Russia and Iran for their support to the Bashar Assad regime in Syria.
Also, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has said in an interview with the Times that he plans to call on the G7 member-states to tighten sanctions against Russia following the latest developments in Syria at the G7 foreign ministers’ meeting in Italy’s Lucca.
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On April 7, at the direction of US President Donald Trump, the US forces fired 59 Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles (TLAM) on a Syrian military air base located in the Homs Governorate. The attack came as a response to the alleged use of chemical weapons in the Idlib Governorate on April 4. The US authorities believe that the airstrike on Idlib was launched from that air base. The Russian and Syrian militaries denied their involvement in the attack. Russia’s Defense Ministry later said that on April 4, the Syrian air force had delivered an airstrike on the eastern outskirts of Khan Shaykhun to destroy militant facilities used to produce chemical bombs. These bombs were sent to Iraq and were previously used in Aleppo.
In 2014, the United States and the European Union imposed sanctions against Russia over the situation in Ukraine. Some of the Russian officials were barred from entering EU counties and the US, their assets were frozen. Besides that, trade, financial and military restrictions were also introduced. Sanctions have been repeatedly extended and expanded.