Putin: US planning ‘fake’ gas attacks to fix Assad
moscow — President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Russia had information that the United States was planning to launch new missile strikes on Syria, and that there were plans to fake chemicals weapons attacks there.
Putin was speaking hours before US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was due to arrive in Moscow for talks with Russia’s foreign minister and days after denouncing last week’s US missile strike on a Syrian air base as illegal.
Standing alongside Italian President Sergio Mattarella who was in Moscow for talks, Putin, when asked by a reporter if he expected more US missile strikes on Syria, said: “We have information that a similar provocation is being prepared ... in other parts of Syria, including in the southern Damascus suburbs where they are planning to again plant some substance and accuse the Syrian authorities of using (chemical weapons).”
He did not offer any proof for that assertion.
Russia has defended the Syrian government, a staunch ally, against US allegations it was behind the nerve gas attack in Syria’s Idlib province last week. —
lucca (Italy) — US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson issued an ultimatum to Russia on Tuesday: Side with the US and likeminded countries on Syria, or embrace Iran, militant group Hezbollah and embattled Syrian leader Bashar Assad.
As he embarked on a trip to Moscow following urgent meetings in Italy with top diplomats, Tillerson said it was unclear whether Russia had failed to take seriously its obligation to rid Syria of chemical weapons, or had merely been incompetent. But he said the distinction “doesn’t much matter to the dead.”
“We cannot let this happen again,” the secretary of state said.
“We want to relieve the suffering of the Syrian people. Russia can be a part of that future and play an important role,” Tillerson added in remarks to reporters.
“Or Russia can maintain its alliance with this group, which we believe is not going to serve Russia’s interests longer term.”
Since the United State 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
it is clear to all of us that the reign of the assad family is coming to an end. But the question of how that ends and the transition itself could be very important in our view to the durability, the stability inside of a unified syria Rex Tillerson, US Secretary of State
must surrender power — and when. Tillerson said it was clear the US saw no role for Assad in Syria’s future, given that he had lost legitimacy.
“It is clear to all of us that the reign of the Assad family is coming to an end,” he said.
“But the question of how that ends and the transition itself could be very important in our view to the durability, the stability inside of a unified Syria.”
“That’s why we are not presupposing how that occurs,” Tillerson added.
He said the cease-fire talks that Russia and Iran have helped broker in the Kazakh capital, Astana, could generate momentum toward broader talks about a political tran- sition — if the Astana talks succeed in creating a durable cease-fire. The resulting political talks would take place under the auspices of the United Nations process in Geneva.
“To date, Astana has not achieved much progress,” Tillerson said. Tillerson spoke after a meeting of the “likeminded” countries was hastily arranged on the sidelines of the summit of the Group of Seven industrialised economies in Italy, days after the US for the first time launched airstrikes against Assad’s forces. —