U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration on Tuesday said it was counterproductive to brand Russia a “state sponsor of terrorism” and dismissed calls by Ukraine and lawmakers for sweeping action.
Biden, asked by a reporter Monday if he would blacklist Russia as a terror state, said simply “no” after months of non-binding replies from senior officials.
Asked Tuesday if a decision had been made, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said a terrorism classification was “not the most effective or strongest way forward” to “hold Russia to account.”
She said the designation would impede the delivery of aid to parts of war-ravaged Ukraine or prevent aid groups and companies from participating in a United Nations-Turkey-brokered deal to ship much-needed grain from Ukraine’s blocked ports .
“It would also undermine our unprecedented multilateral (coalition) that has so effectively held Putin accountable, and could also undermine our ability to assist Ukraine in the negotiations,” she told reporters.
The designation of the United States, the world’s largest economy, as a “state sponsor of terrorism” has far-reaching implications, as many companies and banks are unwilling to risk legal action from US attorneys.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged the West to officially designate Russia as a terrorist state after a series of attacks that have killed civilians, most notably an attack on a shopping center in Kremenchuk in June that killed at least 18 people.
Latvia’s parliament in August declared Russia a “state sponsor of terrorism” for committing “genocide” against Ukraine, but French President Emmanuel Macron also explicitly ruled out the designation in June.
Cross-party US lawmakers, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have called on Biden to brand Russia a state sponsor of terrorism, seeing it as a way to ease pressure after months of economic sanctions over Moscow’s May 24 invasion of Ukraine February to increase.
The United States brands only four nations as state sponsors of terrorism, all US nemes with much smaller economies than Russia’s – Iran, Syria, North Korea and Cuba.
Cuba was controversially re-listed in the final days of former President Donald Trump’s administration, which took a tough approach towards the communist-ruled island.
The Biden administration, upon taking office, reversed a Trump decision to brand Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels a terrorist group, partly out of concern it would hamper aid.
