WASHINGTON: The United States said Thursday it was not involved in an international row over WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange, denying charges it was pressuring Britain to seize him.
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland declined comment on Ecuador's offer of asylum to Assange and, asked whether the United States was pressuring Britain to extradite him, said she had “no information to indicate that there is any truth to that at all.”
”It is an issue among the countries involved and we are not planning to interject ourselves,” Nuland told reporters.
Assange is wanted in Sweden for questioning about allegations of rape and sexual assault, and a British court had already ruled that Assange could be extradited.
Assange -- who angered the United States by releasing a trove of classified US documents on his whistleblowing website -- has been holed up in the Ecuador's embassy in London since June 19.
Ecuador said Thursday that it was offering asylum to Assange because London, Stockholm and Washington refused to guarantee that Assange would not be sent on to the United States.
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