Russian Federation casts 8th veto to block condemnation of Assad regime gas attack

Tillerson met with Russian President Vladimir Putin for two hours at the Kremlin, describing it as “productive”.

“The level of trust at the working level, especially at the military level, has not become better but most likely has degraded”, Putin said in an interview broadcast Wednesday by state television channel Mir.

Details of the meeting were not released.

Later the top Russian and USA diplomats are expected to hold a news conference.

In Washington, US President Donald Trump said the United States’ relationship with Moscow “may be at an all-time low”.

“The world’s two foremost nuclear powers can not have this sort of relationship”. “The world’s two foremost nuclear powers can not have this kind of relationship”.

Despite initial hopes in Moscow of better ties with the United States under President Donald Trump, the two powers have descended into a furious war of words over the attack in the town of Khan Sheikhoun and the retaliatory USA strike against the forces Kremlin ally Assad.

Finally, the New York Times reports that Trump’s rapidly changing positions on Syria, Russia, and a host of other global issues are giving leaders around the world “geopolitical whiplash”.

He said: “The final outcome in our view does not provide a role for Assad or for the Assad family in the future governance of Syria”. Moscow insists that an “unbiased” worldwide investigation is needed to establish who carried out the chemical attack in Syria on April 4.

Lavrov said after the talks that Moscow and Washington agree the Minsk agreements on the Ukrainian conflict settlement should be implemented. America’s top diplomat carried USA grievances over Syria and other issues to Moscow, while President Trump spoke out in Washington.

Safronkov said Russian Federation has proposed an independent worldwide mission sent by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to visit Khan Sheikhoun and the Shairat airbase for investigations.

Mr Lavrov said Russian Federation had “no intention” of shielding whoever was responsible for the attack, but confirmed it was Moscow’s view that the Syrian government was not responsible for the attack.

MARGARET WARNER: Lavrov gave no ground on Ukraine or charges of Russian meddling in the US election.

Russian Deputy U.N. Ambassador Vladimir Safronkov shows his hand to vote against a resolution condemning Syria’s use of chemical weapons, Wednesday, April 5, 2017, at U.N. headquarters. “I do not know who saw them”. “That’s exactly what is happening now…” How that occurs, we leave that to the process going forward.

Meanwhile, Turkey’s health minister confirmed that post-mortem tests on the victims showed that the deadly nerve agent sarin had been used in the April 4 attack. “And I think it’s very bad for Russian Federation”, he said in and interview with Maria Bartiromo airing today on Fox Business Network.

Putin shot back that the charge was fabricated and accused the Trump administration of fabricating the evidence to create a fake confrontation. “This is an animal”.