But after last week’s chemical weapons attack their relationship is increasingly becoming a burden for Putin, jeopardizing chances for improved relations with the U.S.
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Putin also asserted that Syria has complied with an agreement to dispose of chemical weapons “so far as we know”. And the Trump administration’s nascent Syria policy seems to be increasingly centering on the same tactic Obama unsuccessfully employed: persuading Russia, Assad’s staunchest ally, to abandon him.
Putin’s government has been incensed by the Trump administration’s public accusations, and even more so by USA military intervention in Syria.
The fallout over the chemical attack follows comments by the Trump administration and Russian Federation that a reset in relations between the countries was possible after decades of hostility. The U.S. responded by firing nearly 60 Tomahawk missiles at a Syrian air base days later.
And US Defence Secretary James Mattis said Washington has “no doubt” that Assad was behind the massacre.
Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov told the Interfax news agency Wednesday that the draft submitted by the U.S., Britain and France is “unacceptable to us in its current form”.
Tillerson’s official itinerary in Moscow started with the meeting with Lavrov, in an ornate hall in a foreign ministry-owned residence.
At a news conference after that meeting, Lavrov said the two nations agreed there should be a U.N. investigation into the chemical attack in Syria last week.
Rycroft was among the Western ambassadors who blasted Russian Federation earlier Wednesday for continuing to support Assad even after his alleged use of sarin on a rebel-held area of his country.
Trump said former President Obama should have taken action during his tenure in the White House.
Added Tillerson: “Clearly this is an issue that has emerged in our time for which we have yet, as an global community, come to some conclusion on how we want to respond to that”.
“I think Syria would be a lot better off right now than it has been”.
The dim view of U.S.
After journalists were ushered out of the room, Lavrov’s spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, wrote on her Facebook page that USA journalists travelling with Tillerson had behaved as if they were in a “bazaar” by shouting questions to Lavrov.
Now, as that harder line is taking shape, the investigation of possible collusion between Russian Federation and the Trump campaign is continuing.
Like Assad, Iran and Russian Federation chose to use their power in the crisis after it became certain that Tehran had failed in protecting Assad who was about to be ousted back then. “No”, Trump told Fox business TV host Maria Bartiromo.
The White House has accused Moscow of trying to cover up Assad’s use of chemical weapons after the attack on a town killed 87 people last week.
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Russian Federation also accused the United States of bombing the base to divert attention from Iraq, where a March airstrike by the USA -led global coalition killed about 150 civilians in Mosul. But when I see people using frightful, disgusting chemical weapons which they agreed not to use under the Obama administration but they violated it. As the Federal Bureau of Investigation and multiple congressional committees investigate potential collusion between Russia and Trump’s campaign in last year’s USA election, Trump can point to his hard-line stance as fresh evidence that he’s far from beholden to the Russian leader. But Giraldi said there was no way intelligence could have been reviewed quickly enough to “assess that the Syrian government was responsible”.
