Tillerson says no place for Assad in Syria’s future

LUCCA, Italy: President Bashar al-Assad should not be part of Syria’s future, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said yesterday, as G7 allies rejected a call for new sanctions on Damascus and its key ally Moscow.

Washington has stepped up the pressure on Russia to rein in Assad after a chemical weapons attack on a rebel-held Syrian town that killed at least 87 civilians and triggered retaliatory US missile strikes on a Syrian air base.

Turkey said yesterday that tests proved the deadly nerve agent sarin was used in a suspected chemical attack in northwestern Syria which killed dozens last week.

“It has been identified that sarin gas was used,” Turkish Health Minister Recep Akdag said, quoted by state-run news agency Anadolu, after analysis of blood and urine samples of the casualties from the attack in Idlib province who were brought to Turkey.

As G7 foreign ministers urged a diplomatic push to end the six-year conflict and create a lasting peace for a unified Syria, Tillerson said: “Our hope is Bashar al-Assad will not be part of that future.”

With a growing gulf between the US and Assad’s main ally Russia, the G7 ministers threw their support behind Tillerson as he headed for vital talks on the Syrian conflict in Moscow.

“To be clear, our military action was a direct response to the Assad regime’s barbarism,” Tillerson said at the G7 meeting in Italy.

“The United States’ priority in Syria and Iraq remains the defeat of ISIS,” he added, referring to Islamic State ( IS) group.

Moscow said it was hoping to avoid confrontation and engage in “constructive cooperation” with Washington, as Tillerson headed to the Russian capital on the first visit by a senior member of President Donald Trump’s administration.

The G7 ministers failed to agree on whether fresh sanctions should be imposed on Damascus and Moscow.

But after talks in the Tuscan city German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said: “All the G7 states want to avoid a military escalation and want a political solution without a new spiral of violence.” – AFP