Russian National Working For UN Expelled By US

United Nations: A Russian national who is working with the United Nations (UN) Secretariat is being expelled by the United States, a United Nations spokesperson said.

“I can confirm that the US Mission to the United Nations informed the Secretariat on Feb 28 (of) its decision to take action under Section 13b of the UN-UN Headquarters Agreement with respect to a staff member in the Secretariat,” a spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Stephane Dujarric, was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency, as reported by IANS.

“We regret that we find ourselves in this situation, but are engaging with the host country in line with Section 13b of the agreement,” he said.

The spokesman, however, refused to divulge any more details “in deference to the privacy of the individual concerned and the sensitivity of the matter”.

According to him, the US decision is strange as the contract for the staff member concerned was slated to end on March 14.

The US announced the expulsion of 12 staff members of the Russian Permanent Mission to the UN on Monday.

The US Permanent Mission to the United Nations described via a statement that the 12 Russian diplomats as “intelligence operatives” who have abused their privileges of residency in the United States “by engaging in espionage activities”.

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