Russia, US envoys leave Washington, St. Petersburg
MOSCOW (AP/AFP) – Russian diplomats and their families climbed aboard buses and left their embassy in Washington on Saturday while across the Atlantic, American envoys took down the flag from outside the U.S. Consulate in St. Petersburg, loaded up boxes, closed the office down and headed home.
The first plane carrying Russian diplomats expelled from the United States arrived at Moscow's Vnukovo airport on Sunday, an AFP journalist reported.
The Il-96 jet brought home 46 Russian diplomats and their family members, according to the state TASS news agency. A second plane was expected to arrive in the Russian capital later Sunday.
The moves were the latest in a spy poisoning case that has escalated East-West tensions, with both sides expelling more than 150 of each other's diplomats from two dozen countries.
Britain has insisted that the Russian government was behind the nerve agent poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter March 4 in the English city of Salisbury, a charge the Russians vehemently deny.
The Tass news agency says all of the 60 Russian diplomats ordered out of the United States were heading for a homebound flight
BEIRUT (AFP) – Syrian regime ally Russia struck a deal with rebels to evacuate hundreds of civilians from Douma, the final opposition pocket in their former bastion of Eastern Ghouta, a monitor said Sunday.
''A partial agreement was reached to evacuate hundreds of civilians who wish to leave for Idlib'', the rebel-held province in northwestern Syria, the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human on Saturday night.
In St. Petersburg, workers at the US consulate hurried to meet the Saturday deadline to close the consulate, imposed by Russia just two days earlier. In brief comments to reporters, US Consul-General Thomas Leary said "we are ready to leave."
A truck with bags and boxes left the consulate in the late afternoon, its driver waving and honking his horn several times. Outside the elegant 19th-century building, someone had placed four yellow tulips and a card from neighbors reading "hope to see you again."
British officials, meanwhile, said Saturday the government is considering Russia's request for access to the daughter of the former Russian double agent. Russian officials insist they have a legal right to see 33year-old Yulia Skripal, who lived in Moscow and was visiting her father, Sergei Skripal, in Salisbury when they were attacked with a nerve agent that apparently came through his front door.
The Foreign Office said it was reviewing the Russian request "in line with our obligations under international and domestic law," adding that the government's consideration will include "the rights and wishes of Yulia Skripal."
British officials say she is recovering in Rights told AFP.
In all around 1,300 people would be evacuated under the deal, Rami Abdel Rahman said, adding that talks on the fate of rebels who hold Douma were still underway.
''Negotiations were continuing for a full agreement, including concerning the Jaish al-Islam'' rebel faction, said the head of the Britain-based monitor.
A civilian committee taking the hospital while her 66-yearold father remains in critical condition.
The Russian Embassy in London called her recovery "good news" in a tweet Friday and said Russian diplomats had a right to see her under the 1968 Consular Convention.
The Russian Foreign Ministry on Saturday also issued lists of questions it wants Britain and France to answer in the case, including to what extent French investigators have been involved in probing the poisoning and why.
Russia contends that Britain is exploiting "Russophobia" to undermine Moscow. On Saturday, its London embassy issued a statement warning Russians travelling to the U.K. that they could be subject to "provocations" including having various items planted in their luggage.
In another illustration of the deteriorating relations, the Russian Embassy in Britain complained about the alleged search of a Russian airliner at London's Heathrow Airport. part in the negotiations with Russia on Saturday said a deal had been reached ''to evacuate humanitarian cases to northern Syria''.
It gave no further details nor did it say when the planned evacuations would start.
The reports come after Syria's army on Saturday vowed to finish off rebels in Douma, the main town in Eastern Ghouta.
A statement said the military would press on with ''fighting in the area of Douma to rid it of terrorism'', in reference to the rebels.
That announcement came after
The embassy said British Border Forces and Customs officers searched an Aeroflot flight from Moscow on Friday in violation of international rules. In a tweet, the embassy called it "another blatant provocation by the British authorities." Syria's state news agency SANA reported that another southern pocket of Eastern Ghouta was ''empty of terrorism'' as the last buses carrying rebels and civilians left it on Saturday afternoon as part of a deal to withdraw.
Since February 18, Russiabacked regime forces have recaptured the vast majority of Eastern Ghouta through the combination of a deadly air and ground assault and evacuation deals.
The assault has killed more than 1,600 civilians and caused tens of thousands more to flee into regime-held territory, the Observatory says.