14 July 2017, 01:12 GMT
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The White House is considering the possibility of returning Russian diplomatic property in the United States to Russia to give a chance to cooperation between Moscow and Washington, Sebastian Gorka, deputy assistant to US President Donald Trump said Thursday.
"We want to give collaboration, cooperation, a chance," Gorka told the CNN broadcaster answering the question on why White House would make such a decision.
In December 2016, President Barack Obama introduced a sanctions package that contains a measure barring access to two diplomatic compounds in use by the Russian Embassy in Washington and Russia’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York.
Russian authorities repeatedly urged the United States to restore access to Russian diplomatic property. On Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Moscow would take retaliatory measures against Washington if the situation with Russia's diplomatic property in the United States was not resolved.
