LONDON: Britain said on Monday it was reviewing the rules which govern diplomatic immunity arrangements for US personnel at an air force base after a man was killed when his motorbike collided with a car driven by a US diplomat’s wife.
Harry Dunn, 19, died in August near RAF Croughton, a base in the central English county of Northamptonshire used by the US military. American Anne Sacoolas left Britain after the fatal crash.
“I have already commissioned a review of the immunity arrangements for US personnel and their families at Croughton,” foreign minister Dominic Raab told parliament.
“As this case has demonstrated, I do not believe the current arrangements are right and the review will look at how we can make sure that the arrangements at Croughton cannot be used in this way again.”
The government had been warned by the United States that Sacoolas was going to leave Britain, Raab also said.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has urged President Donald Trump to reconsider a decision to let Sacoolas use diplomatic immunity to leave the country.
Trump met Dunn’s parents earlier this month in Washington, saying their meeting was “sad” but “beautiful.” In a subsequent interview the family said they felt pressure to allow the American woman to join the session.
UK reviews immunity rules after crash involving US diplomat's wife
UK reviews immunity rules after crash involving US diplomat's wife
Russia says foreign forces in Ukraine would be ‘legitimate targets’
- Moscow has repeatedly said it will not tolerate the presence in Ukraine of troops from Western countries
MOSCOW: Russia would regard the deployment of any foreign military forces or infrastructure in Ukraine as foreign intervention and treat those forces as legitimate targets, the Foreign Ministry said on Monday, citing Minister Sergei Lavrov.
The ministry’s comment, one of many it said were in response to questions put to Lavrov, also praised US President Donald Trump’s efforts at working for a resolution of the war and said he understood the fundamental reasons behind the conflict.
“The deployment of military units, facilities, warehouses, and other infrastructure of Western countries in Ukraine is unacceptable to us and will be regarded as foreign intervention posing a direct threat to Russia’s security,” the ministry said on its website.
It said Western countries — which have discussed a possible deployment to Ukraine to help secure any peace deal — had to understand “that all foreign military contingents, including German ones, if deployed in Ukraine, will become legitimate targets for the Russian Armed Forces.”
The United States has spearheaded efforts to hold talks aimed at ending the conflict in Ukraine and a second three-sided meeting with Russian and Ukrainian representatives is to take place this week in the United Arab Emirates.
The issue of ceding internationally recognized Ukrainian territory to Russia remains a major stumbling block. Kyiv rejects Russian calls for it to give up all of its Donbas region, including territory Moscow’s forces have not captured.
Moscow has repeatedly said it will not tolerate the presence in Ukraine of troops from Western countries.
The ministry said Moscow valued the “purposeful efforts” of the Trump administration in working toward a resolution and understanding Russia’s long-running concerns about NATO’s eastward expansion and its overtures to Ukraine.
It described Trump as “one of the few Western politicians who not only immediately refused to advance meaningless and destructive preconditions for starting a substantive dialogue with Moscow on the Ukrainian crisis, but also publicly spoke about its root causes.”
