MOSCOW, April 15 (Itar-Tass) - RIA Novosti. The United States intends to announce the expansion of sanctions against Russia because of the situation in Syria. This was reported by the Permanent Representative to the UN Nikki Haley CBS News.

According to her, the Minister of Finance Stephen Mnuchin will announce an appropriate decision on April 16. Hayley was utterly saddened that new restrictive measures will affect enterprises involved in the supply of equipment and technologies related to the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian authorities.

The Kommersant newspaper earlier reported that the US ambassador in Moscow, John Huntsman, sent a letter to the Russian Foreign Ministry warning about the preparations being made.

The forthcoming expansion of restrictive measures was also reported by Atlantic Council expert Brian O'Toole. In a quote from the document he quoted, it is said that the US authorities want to expand anti-Russian sanctions as a response to Moscow's support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, "which allowed him to commit crimes against the Syrian people."

A representative of the White House told RIA Novosti that he has nothing to say about the information about the new sanctions.

A sharp aggravation of the situation around Syria occurred on the night of April 14. The United States, France and the United Kingdom have inflicted air strikes against objects in Syria. During the attack, more than 100 missiles were fired, most of which were successfully shot down by Syrian air defense systems. The reason for this was unsubstantiated reports about the alleged use of chemical weapons by the Syrian authorities.

Vladimir Putin criticized the actions of the West, calling the attack an act of aggression against a sovereign state. At a meeting of the UN Security Council, Russia presented a draft resolution condemning the attack, but the document was rejected.

Link: https://ria.ru/world/20180415/1518697649.html