U.S. looking at possible Russian Federation collusion in Syria ‘chemical attack’

Russia, Assad’s staunchest ally, has insisted that Assad is blameless and that it was actually the rebels responsible for the disbursed chemical weapons.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson arrived in Moscow Tuesday with an ultimatum for Russia: Side with the U.S. and likeminded countries on Syria, or embrace Iran, militant group Hezbollah and embattled Syrian leader Bashar Assad.

The U.S. raised the stakes significantly on Monday when a senior U.S. official said Washington has made a preliminary conclusion that Russian Federation knew in advance of Syria’s chemical weapons attack.

The strikes were in response to a chemical attack on a rebel-held town in northwest Syria that was widely blamed on the Syrian regime.

US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said on Monday that the attack was a “measured response” to the use of chemical weapons. The Russian Foreign Ministry blasted the US for relying on “staged photos of events on the ground” in justifying the strike on the Syrian airbase.

Russia, along with Iran, is Assad’s primary backer, and its intervention in Syria’s war has been crucial to ensuring his grip on power, although no longer over the entire country.

The civil war is separate from the US -led effort against the Islamic State group in the north of the country.

“To date, Astana has not achieved much progress”, Tillerson said.

“Regardless of whether Russia was complicit here or whether they were simply incompetent or whether they got outwitted by the Bashar al-Assad regime”, Tillerson told CBS’ Face the Nation on Sunday, “you would have to ask the Russians that question”. He was referring to widespread vacancies throughout the top State Department leadership that has fueled a perception in the USA that Tillerson and his agency are being sidelined by Trump.

It’s not clear what Trump meant by “not going into Syria”, but presumably he is talking about a ground invasion against Assad’s regime.

“I’m hopeful that we can have constructive talks with the Russian Federation government, with Foreign Minister (Sergey) Lavrov, and have Russian Federation be supportive of a process that will lead to a stable Syria”, Tillerson said on ABC’s “This Week” ahead of the visit.

Last week, the US fired a volley of cruise missiles at a Syrian airbase in response to an alleged regime attack using a suspected nerve agent that killed at least 87 civilians in a rebel-held town, many of them children.

Damascus denies it was behind the attack.

Mr Trump was influenced in his decision to strike Syrian government targets by the reaction to the chemical weapons attack from his daughter Ivanka, who was “heartbroken, and outraged”, his son said. “But if I see them using gas.we have to do something”.

The barrage of Tomahawk missiles damaged or destroyed 20pc of Syria’s operational aircraft, according to the US.

“It agreed to be the guarantor of the elimination of the chemical weapons, and why Russian Federation has not been able to achieve that is unclear to me”, Tillerson said. “We’re ready to be patient”.

Japan hopes the strong USA response on Syria will also put pressure on the isolated country, which is showing signs of preparing for its sixth nuclear test and more test-firings of ballistic missiles.

He’s also been more restrained in his calls for Assad’s removal than other members of his party, including Trump’s United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley.

Their comments came as Tillerson was making the Trump administration’s first official trip this week to Russian Federation, a staunch Assad ally. You are a protector of someone using poison gas.

The U.S. officials said imagery after the attack shows a bomb left a crater in a road, rather than hitting a building, and that Islamic State forces in the region aren’t believed to have access to sarin, while the Assad regime does. Aides later clarified that this “did not signal a change in Administration policy”.

Yet while G-7 countries are seeking clarity, Russian Federation – a former member of the group – has been perfectly clear about its own immediate reaction to recent events in Syria.

The United States has sought to minimize expectations for the trip or the likelihood that the USA will leave with any Russian concessions on Syria. Putin even awarded Tillerson the Order of Friendship.

Meeting allies earlier Tuesday in Italy, Tillerson delivered an ultimatum to Russia: Side either with the US and its dozens of coalition partners or face the isolation of a partnership with Assad, Iran and Hezbollah.