britain accuses russia of breaching the convention on chemical weapons at the merchant sea meeting of the un security council while russia protest it's being considered guilty until proven innocent. we've known for years that for you in order to determine the guilty party no investigation is needed today the best kind of proof the suspicion that comes as the u.k.'s prime minister now is expanding twenty three russian diplomats from britain in retaliation for the president's alleged involvement in the poisoning of that former russian intelligence agent and his daughter despite police having declared no suspects to speak there is no alternative conclusion other than that the russian state was culpable for the attempted murder of mr script file and his daughter under the vienna convention the

united kingdom will now expel twenty three russian diplomats who have been identified as undeclared intelligence officers. and also this morning in other news human rights advocates call on the u.s. congress for jet donald trump's new pick for cia director over her involvement in the intelligence agency's torture program. hi good morning just turned one am here in moscow this early thursday watching out international with me kevin zero in so the escalating diplomatic crisis over the sergei scriptural poison is reaching new heights just a few hours ago the u.k. accused russia of breaching the international chemical weapons convention that's after london called for an emergency meeting of the u.n. security council over the russian double agents poisoning in britain. mr president

for more of this we can conclude that russia is in serious breach of the chemical weapons convention through its failure to declare the no visual program this fact alone means you should discount any arguments you hear about the possibility of of a countries having inherited this technology after we heard the words from the u.k. ambassador who had called this emergency meeting of the fifteen member body that leads the united nations we then heard from the u.s. ambassador nikki haley now in her remarks emphasize the special relationship between the united states and the united kingdom and from there she went on to the allegations against russia in with the broader narrative she talked about syria and she talked about north korea she talked about the previous security council meetings and it was rather heated words we heard not just from the u.k. ambassador but then from nikki haley representing the united states a growing concern and all of this dangerous and destabilizing activity is russia.

russia failed to ensure syria destroyed is chemical weapons program russia killed the joint investigative mechanism when it found the side liable for chemical attacks russia used its veto to shield assad five times last year it has also provided cover for syria in the hague at the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons in response to the heated words from the united states and the united kingdom we heard from the russian ambassador and he responded on a number of levels one of his points that he made was he pointed out that russia has actually given up its chemical weapons and that the o.p.c. w. has confirmed that russia no longer possesses chemical weapons from there he invoked the memory of when call in powell representing united states in dressed that very body the u.n. security council holding the vials of powder that he said were chemical weapons

from iraq he reminded the council and pointed out that at this point now we have the united kingdom coming was simply a letter and that that there seems to be a history of rather unsubstantiated allegations against different countries regarding chemical weapons and weapons of mass destruction from the united states in the u.k. this is the russian representative responding to the words from the u.s. and the u.k. was even will salute him and we are living in a very special time in front of our eyes incredible things are happening the process of replacing the presumption of innocence with the presumption of guilt has taken place this criminal principle is being transferred into international relations and we hate lee as an experienced chemist his talk about crimes committed by russia we've known for years that for you in order to determine the guilty party no investigation is needed today the best kind of proof is suspicion and it is no longer necessary to show to the consul why to use with an unknown new art substance

in it it's enough to send a letter displaying an agreed use attitude towards a sovereign state. from there the russian ambassador went on to call for a thorough investigation of the incident and determine exactly who is to blame and what happened and he called for this to be done through the existing international mechanisms to find out who is absolutely responsible and he reassured the security council that russia was more than happy to cooperate with this proper investigation to determine who is responsible for the attack however he was very clear that he did not approve of the heated words and allegations from the u.k. and the united states before the council and that russia just like other countries wants to get to the bottom of what exactly happened in salisbury we spoke to ken livingstone the former mayor of london he believes judgment should only be made after the police finish their inquiry well we are at the beginning of our local election campaign and the tory party is very far behind in the polls so i think the

way this has been exploited in the media and this coverage. prime minister taking this strong and stable stand against putin and russia may very well and this may be a big part of it politics is a dirty old guy and i think the simple way that it's been a mad rush to make will be decision why we should be waiting for the food police inquiry to come out with a report but you have to ask one thing if russia wanted to kill this man they could have killed him when he was a prisoner in russia why have they waited this long and why use a chemical weapon that makes it definitely is so rushed beyond just the many simpler easier ways of killing someone without leaving all these fingerprints all over it earlier u.k. prime minister to resign may announce that britain would expel twenty three russian

diplomats and suspend all shojo bilateral meetings with russia now. has the details from london. well the british prime minister has said that russia is culpable of attempted murder and among the measures that the u.k. is now taking is the expulsion of twenty three russian diplomats they are suspending high level contacts between the two countries the russian foreign minister's visit to the u.k. has been cancelled and no british officials including members of the world family will be present at the world cup in russia taking place this summer may has said that russia's response to the deadline that was given by midnight last night was a distain given the gravity of that unraveled mr speaker it was right to offer russia the opportunity to provide an explanation but their response has demonstrated complete disdain for the gravity of these events. they have provided

no credible explanation that they could suggest they don't control the agent no explanation as to how this agent came to be used in the united kingdom no explanation as to why russia has an undeclared chemical weapons program in contravention of international law. the leader of the opposition jeremy corbyn had to ask the british prime minister whether or not any official requests were sent to russia whether any evidence was provided to russia or any facts and that the response was a bit unsubstantial was the prime minister taking the necessary steps under the chemical weapons convention to make a formal request for evidence from the russian government how has she responded to the russian government's request for a sample of the agent used in the souls return to run its own terms has high resolution trace analysis been run on

a sample of the nerve agent and has that revealed any evidence as to the location or which production. all the identity of its perpetrators we case the russian government the opportunity of the through the day march that my russian befriend the phone secretary to the russian ambassador here in london earlier this week to do just that they have not done so if there is a consensus across the back bench is all this is how. i am really sorry that the consensus does not go as far as the right honorable gentleman. could have taken the opportunity as the u.k. government has done to condemn the culprits of the senior. russian embassy here in london has said that the steps taken by the british government are unjustified unacceptable and shortsighted also saying that they did deterioration of ties between russian and the u.k.

lies on the british government and that ultimatums don't work with russia everything is what is. acceptable we perceive it to provoke each. we believe that the you know i do keep the full big international and none of them under this obligations to him. given the weapons they have to present their request to the organization and we're happy to consider this we didn't do the deed this is the international law and of course we're not ready to. to talk you know we will be ultimately the actions taken by the british government became really a crescendo of over a week of the spy saga on raveling where we saw what could have been a potential local incident unravel into

a huge international diplomatic standoff. do you know hawkins join me in the studio lead to discuss russia's reaction to britain's punitive measures. i think it will be too long before there is that official response with exact matches from moscow of course from the u.k. government side as we heard there from prime minister to reason why it appears to be an open and shut case there is no other culprits no other possibilities other than the hand of the kremlin being culpable in this attempted murder case now the russian foreign ministry as they initially said a few days back have no knowledge of this they've denied a woman in this tragic incident they've made it clear that they view this as an act of provocation and that measures will be quick to be taken let's take a listen to what they had to say earlier thread of completing its investigation using established international formats and instruments including those in the framework of the a.p.c. w. which we were expecting the british government chose confrontation with russia is obvious that by opening for unilateral

a nontransparent methods of investigating this incident the british authorities have once again tried to unleash an indiscriminate and the russian campaign what they're referring to there was a statement by foreign minister sergei lavrov as well who called on the u.k. to launch a joint investigation into this incident to provide any details to russia so they could have a joint investigation here through the o.p.c. w. that international organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons he said that no such request officially had been received by the russian side from the u.k. counterparts this is what he had to say just earlier today. we haven't received any official request from london based on its own obligations in accordance with the chemical weapons convention we've told britain we're ready to respond if they file the request instead of filing the official request the u.k. continues to pull political stunts for britain suspicion they are pushing has to be comprehended by the international community as universal proof without presenting

concrete facts they will pay for a blatant attempt to dilute the international community it's important to. just how quickly events have moved this incident happened on the fourth of march in just under ten days later we're seeing the biggest diplomatic row between russia and the u.k. on thirty years twenty three diplomats expelled is the worst point in three decades for u.k. russian relations as we said earlier there's no official comment as to what exact measures would be taken but this statement from the foreign ministry they have made clear that countermeasures will be coming soon whether that's the day tomorrow we don't know but certainly this isn't the last we're going to hear if you're at some of the start of what is the very serious diplomatic incident in the studio in iran and take a look back now at how this all developed in the first place. on sunday march fourth a couple of found slumped on a bench and saw reporters arrive at the scene for what was thought to be a local incident but soon after

a global media frenzy unravels exposure to an unknown substance enter comparisons to the two thousand and six death of alexander litvinenko march sixth the u.k.'s counter-terrorism police take control of the investigation the case foreign secretary boris johnson has this to say while it would be wrong to prejudge the investigation i can reassure the house that should evidence emerged that implies state responsibility then your majesty's government will respond appropriately robustly russia says it has no information and offers to help in any way it can downing street remains cautious in finger pointing it being too early to explain what actually unraveled but that approach will soon make a swift exit british prime minister to resume a is expected to provide clarity the government has concluded that it is highly likely that russia was responsible for the act against and use the script. this highly likely comes with

a pre-determined conclusion and the deadline set for russia to explain itself is wednesday. while here's the u.k. police course getting many questions regarding. this actually. i can't comment on that this is. not declaring a person of interest or a suspect that is in a court of law this would at least mean it's time outs in the world of political game play apparently it means very little. in other news this morning the u.s. president's opted for a major shake up on capitol hill the new face of american diplomacy with cia director mike pompei o with donald trump says he has good chemistry. we have a very good relationship for whatever. whatever was. right. was. so he's no set to take the reins at the state department with

position of the cia meantime being back filled by gina her spell she's a veteran intelligence agency controversially played a role in the organization's torture program he goes down off next takes a closer look at the appointments and their implications hawks nesting in washington my ponytail the new diplomats in chief of the iron fist to lead america's state department has had the president under his spell for a while already the to see eye to eye on normal most everything the issue that sunk to listen diplomatic korea trump and pompei all share common spite towards iran and north korea both of them like to call torture enhanced interrogation and their fans of the n.s.a.'s warrantless bulk data collection where they stand on whistleblowers is one of the few things trump and don't pay i don't quite agree on well they have to differ on something. it's time to call out wiki leaks for what it really is

a non-state hostile intelligence service often abetted by state actors like russia . i can't think of a thing that has put america in a better position as a result of this deal we're a year out from the agreement and every has single action the iranians have taken has been bolder and starker than the ones they took before the agreement. a very real danger. by hardly ever escape a day of the white house without the president asking me about north korea and how it is that the united states is responding to that threat it's very much at the top of his mind they are ever closer to having the capacity to hold america risk with a nuclear weapon this is.