WASHINGTON, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. State Department said on Tuesday the current diplomatic row between Russia and the United States should not be escalated.
The Secretary of State Rex Tillerson "believes that no further escalatory action is necessary at his point and we look forward to trying to forge ahead," State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said at a news briefing.
U.S. President Donald Trump's administration on on Aug. 31 ordered Russia to close three diplomatic facilities in the United States as the diplomatic spat between Washington and Moscow continued to escalate.
The tit-for-tat action came after Russian President Vladimir Putin in July ordered the United States to reduce the number of diplomatic personnel in Russia by 755, in response to U.S. sanctions on Russia over its alleged intervention in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
The diplomatic row also came at a low point of bilateral relationship between Washington and Moscow, as the two sides hold differences on a range of issues, including the war in Syria and the conflict in Ukraine.
However, Putin's move was not the origin of this round of diplomatic row between Russian and the United States and rather a delayed response to former U.S. President Barack Obama's expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats and seizure of two Russian diplomatic facilities last year out of alleged Russian meddling in the U.S. election.
