Tillerson carries Syria stance to Moscow as Trump assumes West’s leadership

On Saturday, US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley told CNN that US President Donald Trump and his administration were shown classified information proving that Syrian President Bashar Assad had been involved in the alleged attack.

He also said he would “make sure that we arm and train some of those who fight against Bashar Assad”. The U.S. and Britain say there is little doubt Assad’s forces are culpable.

The latest claims came as US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson touched down in Russian Federation to confront the Kremlin over its support for Assad on the first visit by a senior member of Trump’s administration.

“Stockpiles and continued use demonstrate that Russian Federation has failed in its responsibility to deliver on its 2013 commitment” to remove chemical weapons from Syria under a United Nations -brokered deal, Tillerson said.

He said Russian Federation was set to appeal to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and “call on the worldwide community to thoroughly investigate such incidents”.

Medvedev added, “This military action is a clear indication of the US President’s extreme dependency on the opinion of the Washington establishment, the one that the new president strongly criticized in his inauguration speech”.

The Huffington poll said that only a third of those it polled think that Trump’s missile attack will deter Assad from using chemical weapons again.

“I think the prime minister was premature in talking about sanctions against Russia”, Kinsman said Monday.

The Trump administration veered toward deeper conflict with Russia Tuesday as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson arrived in Moscow, gambling that an unpredictable new president armed with the willingness to threaten military action gives the US much-needed leverage to end Syria’s carnage. “If we can defeat them and if we can work with them on a plan to defeat them, then we’re going to do it”, he said.

The two-day meeting of foreign ministers was aimed at hammering out a unified approach to Syria before Mr Tillerson headed to Moscow.

How Assad’s rule ends and the transition to a more democratic form of government are important to the “stability” of Syria, Tillerson said.

TILLERSON, U.S. Secretary of State: We rededicate ourselves to holding to account any and all who commit crimes against the innocents anywhere in the world.

G7 nations have failed to agree on a proposal by Britain for sanctions against Russian Federation in the wake of a deadly chemical attack they say was carried out by Moscow’s ally, Syria. One government official after another has suggested they would like to see Assad gone, but not elaborated on whether it’s an immediate USA priority. That two-day summit, which opened Monday in Lucca, brings together diplomats from the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan – all of whom have expressed uniform support for last week’s missile strike.

Though meant to punish Assad for a chemical weapons attack, the US strikes last week served to refocus the world’s attention on the bloody war in Syria, now in its seventh year.

One should always take the word of anonymous officials with a spoonful of salt, and it is hard to comprehend the motivations of Russian Federation and Syria in the AP’s narrative.

On Monday, British Prime Minister Theresa May spoke to U.S. President Donald Trump, with both agreeing that there was “a window of opportunity” to persuade Russian Federation to break ties with Assad, May’s office said.

Those include alleged Russian interference in the 2016 USA presidential election, Washington’s accusation that Russia is violating an important arms control treaty, and trying to bridge differences on how to conduct the fight against Islamic State.