Putin winds up US ahead of Rex’s visit
VLADIMIR Putin ratcheted up tension with the US yesterday by comparing reports of the Syrian government’s chemical weapons attack last week with the discredited claims that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.
The Russian premier made the incendiary remarks ahead of the US Secretary of State’s arrival in Moscow last night.
He also claimed the US is planning a fresh wave of airstrikes in Syria which would be falsely blamed on Assad.
As the first official trip to Russia by a member of Donald Trump’s cabinet, Rex Tillerson’s visit was once billed as an attempt to improve relations between the superpowers. Instead, his arrival is entirely overshadowed by Cold War rhetoric and growing differences over the Syrian civil war.
Mr Putin intensified the diplomatic standoff by once again rejecting the widely-held belief that it was Bashar al-Assad’s regime that killed 80 people, a third of whom were children, with sarin gas last week.
He said such claims were comparable with the now-debunked allegation that Saddam Hussein had stockpiled weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
Fears of WMDs were used by George W Bush and Tony Blair as a justification for taking the US and the UK to war with Iraq in 2003. Mr Putin spoke up amid widespread criticism over his continued support of Assad.
He claimed there could be fake gas attacks pinned on Assad.
Mr Putin said yesterday: ‘We have information... they are again planning to throw some kind of substance and accuse Syrian official authorities of using it.
‘It reminds me of the events in 2003 when US envoys to the [UN] Security Council were demonstrating what they said were chemical weapons found in Iraq.’
He added: ‘We have seen it all already. After that a military campaign in Iraq began, which ended with the destruction of the country, the growth of the terrorist threat and the appear-
ance of Islamic State.’ Mr Tillerson launched a broadside of his own, claiming Russia had ‘failed in its responsibility’ to destroy Assad’s entire stockpile of chemical weapons.
he said: ‘It is unclear whether Russia failed to take this obligation seriously or Russia has been incompetent but this distinction doesn’t much matter to the dead.’
he said the US believes that Russia could be persuaded to switch sides now that it knows Assad is an ‘unreliable partner’.
he added: ‘Is that a long-term alliance that serves Russia’s interest, or would Russia prefer to realign with the United States, with other Western countries and Middle east countries who are seeking to resolve the Syrian crisis?’