Mattis: ‘No doubt’ Assad used chemical weapons against civilians

Since the US launched airstrikes against Assad’s forces in retaliation for a chemical attack on civilians last week, Trump administration officials have offered mixed messages about whether Washington believes Assad definitely must surrender power – and when.

Levels of trust between Moscow and Washington have deteriorated since U.S. President Donald Trump took office, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview broadcast on Wednesday.

The White House said intelligence reports and video pointed to the regime being at fault, claiming personnel who were associated with Mr Assad’s chemical weapons programme were seen near the airfield where the attack is believed to have originated.

During Trump’s Fox Business interview Wednesday, Trump appeared resolute, saying Putin’s loyalty to Assad was “very bad for Russian Federation … very bad for mankind … very bad for the world”.

President Trump said it is also “very bad for mankind”.

At a minimum, Tillerson will meet Wednesday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and the two are expected to take questions from reporters.

“I’m very supportive of the action on Syria”, says Tom Donilon, national security adviser for President Barack Obama.

Tillerson, America’s top diplomat, came to the Russian capital Tuesday afternoon for meetings with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.

“We did that and developed a target-strike package with the goal being to eliminate those capabilities – including airframes, equipment and fuel supplies – that provided offensive military capacity for the regime from Shayrat airfield”, Votel said. “We met over several days and I spoke with some of our allies”, he added.

On Tuesday he said that “fake chemical attacks” were being prepared in other regions, created to be blamed on the Syrian government.

He says that makes it hard to have clarity about United States positions.

Putin derisively compared the current situation in Syria to the buildup to the war in Iraq in 2003, when USA officials insisted that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction over the objections of worldwide investigators. That chemical attack left more than 80 civilians dead. He maintained that the US’s “military priority in Syria has not changed”, and that “the Syrian regime should think long and hard” before it uses chemical weapons again.

Of Assad, Trump added: “This is an animal”.

The Trump team feels that after last week’s strike on Syria to enforce the chemical weapons ban, the United States has regained the strategic initiative from Putin.

In the briefing last week, the senior State Department official said Tillerson will “push on the Ukraine issue for Russian Federation to meet its Minsk commitments”, and that sanctions will stay in place until that has happened. “Then you realize”, she said on CNN.

With Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in Moscow to talk shop with the same Russian government that loved him so much as Exxon’s CEO, no one should be surprised if Trump and Putin are best buds again by the end of the week.

And Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis asserted the situation in Syria would “not spiral out of control”.

“We are obviously paying close attention to the environment in the wake of these strikes, and remain appropriately postured to respond as necessary”, he said.

“Putin knows that Trump personally degraded US intelligence credibility by attacking it over the Russian hacking and essentially going to war with the CIA and NSA”, said Malcolm Nance, a veteran intelligence officer.