Tillerson in Moscow: Pushing on Syria where Obama failed.

MOSCOW (AP) — The Trump administration veered toward deeper conflict with Russia Tuesday as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson arrived in Moscow, gambling that an unpredictable new president armed with the willingness to threaten military action gives the U.S. much-needed leverage to end Syria’s carnage.

Yet there were no guarantees Tillerson’s arguments would prove any more successful than the Obama administration’s failed effort to peel Russia away from its Syrian ally. Tillerson’s mission, coming days after 59 Tomahawk missiles struck a Syrian air base, also carries serious risks: If Russia brushes off the warnings, President Donald Trump could be forced into another show of force in Syria or see his credibility wane.

“I hope that what the Russian government concludes is that they have aligned themselves with an unreliable partner in Bashar al-Assad,” Tillerson said before flying to the Russian capital, referring to Syria’s embattled leader.

“The reign of the Assad family is coming to an end,” he confidently predicted.

But Tillerson’s claim is one President Barack Obama, too, argued for years, only to see Assad outlast his own term in office. And the Trump administration’s nascent Syria policy seems to be increasingly centering on the same tactic Obama unsuccessfully employed: persuading Russia, Assad’s staunchest ally, to abandon him.

The parallels haven’t gone unnoticed by Russian President Vladimir Putin as U.S. officials have accused his military of knowing about Assad’s recent chemical weapons attack ahead of time and trying to help cover it up. Calling for a U.N. investigation, Putin held to his claim that it was actually Assad opponents who introduced chemical weapons into Syria’s harrowing civil war.

“We have seen it all already,” Putin said. Jabbing at U.S. credibility, the Russian leader reminded reporters about unfounded U.S. claims of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, used to justify America’s 2003 invasion.

The escalating dispute over last week’s events in the Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun has thrust Washington and Moscow into a level of tension rarely seen since the end of the Cold War.

The animosity is especially striking given widespread speculation that Trump, who lavishly praised Putin during his campaign, would pursue rapprochement with Moscow.

Even on Syria, the positions appeared to be hardening. Only a week ago, top Trump officials had spoken off deprioritizing past U.S. efforts to remove Assad from office and accepting the “reality” that 18 months of Russian military intervention had secured him in power. Since last Thursday’s cruise missile strike, Tillerson and other U.S. officials appear to have reverted to the past administration’s rhetoric of insisting that Assad is on the way out, without outlining any strategy for making that happen.

The Trump administration’s change of heart, apparently spurred in part by the president’s emotional response to the images of chemical weapons victims, also is serving another purpose: defanging the perception of coziness between Trump and Moscow.

As the FBI and multiple congressional committees investigate potential collusion between Russia and Trump’s campaign, the president can point to his hard-line stance on Assad as fresh evidence he’s willing to stand up to Putin.