the USA urge Venezuela to not pay their debts to Russia || Breaking News, 14th of February, 2019

Riam Dalati, a BBC producer, currently working in Syria, proved that the video of victims of an alleged chemical attack, made in a hospital in the city of Douma in April of 2018, was fake. “The attack did take place, but it wasn’t sarin. We will have to wait until the OPCW proves if it was chlorine or something else. All the other details of the attack were fabricated to make it look more effective” — Riam Dalati tweeted — “After almost 6 months of investigation, I can confirm that the scenes in Douma hospital were staged. There were no victims in the hospital” — he added. On 7th of April, 2018, the armed Syrian opposition announced a possible use of poison gas by the government forces against both terrorists and civilians in the Syrian city of Douma. On 14th of April, the US, the UK, and France attacked targets, allegedly related to the production and storage of the chemical weapons on the territory of Syria

On Wednesday, a group of US senators presented a bill on additional sanctions against Russia in response to «Russian interference in the work of the democratic institutions abroad», and to the incident in the Kerch Strait — Interfax reports. It was proposed to impose sanctions against the «Russian banks that support Russian efforts, aimed to undermine the democratic institutions in other countries». Also — against the investments in the Russian liquefied natural gas projects, located outside of Russia, and the Russian ship-building sector. The bill also provides sanctions on the Russian sovereign debt. The senators also consider it necessary to “ask the State Department to check if Russia meets the criteria of a “country that sponsors the terrorism”. The senators also urge the US administration to make a report on the assets of the Russian president, and a report on the circumstances of the death of a Russian opposition activist Boris Nemtsov

An explosion in the south-eastern Iran killed 41 people, including the members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — the news agencies reported. «The number of victims reached 41. It includes the members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and civilians» — the Fars agency reports. According to the reports — the explosion was made by a suicide bomber on a car-bomb. The car ran into a bus with military personnel. The extremist group »Jaysh al-Adl» claimed the responsibility for the attack. The group was created in 2012 by the former members of the »Jundullah» — a rebel organization of Baloch Sunnis. According to Tehran — the Jundullah group is connected with the special services of the US and the UK

The Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced that the upcoming US sanctions grossly violate the international trade rules. The sanctions are made to suppress Russian companies and banks in the interest of American business. According to Dmitry Peskov — the goal of the sanctions is to disrupt the energy projects in Russia, and undermine the activities of Russian banks with state participation. It is “an attempt of an unfair competition. We consider it unacceptable. We believe that such actions could potentially go against the generally accepted rules of the international trade, and have very harmful consequences» — said Dmitry Peskov. He noted that the Russian government has already taken protective measures against possible US sanctions.

Brad Sherman, a member of the US foreign affairs committee of the US Congress, urged the US authorities to help Venezuela to not pay their “criminal debts”, by which he meant their debts to Russia — RIA NEWS reports. During the hearings in the House of Representatives, Brad Sherman asked the US Special Representative for Venezuela, Elliott Abrams, if there are any on-going negotiations on the Venezuelan debts with the opposition, and whether or not the United States informed Russia that the debts to them won’t be paid. Elliot Abrams replied that the Venezuelan opposition should make the decision on Russian debts on their own, since the opposition earlier promised to pay the “legal debts”. Earlier, Rodrigo Diamanti, the representative of the self-proclaimed «president» of Venezuela Juan Guaydo announced that Caracas would pay the Russian debts only if the opposition leader comes to the power.

Constantine Reztsov, specially for ANNA NEWS.