Tillerson to push Moscow, says Assad reign ‘coming to end’
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will push Russia to drop its support for Syrian dictator Bashar Assad in highly anticipated meetings between the rival superpowers today, after the Pentagon claimed “with no doubt whatsoever” that the brutal dictator carried out the chemical attack against civilians.
“I hope that what the Russian government concludes is that they have aligned themselves with an unreliable partner in Bashar al-Assad,” Tillerson said. “The reign of the Assad family is coming to an end.”
Tillerson is hoping the U.S. will have the upper hand in today’s talks after President Trump ordered a cruise missile strike on a Syrian airbase last week in response to the chemical attacks that killed dozens of civilians, including children. U.S. officials have said they believe Russia knew about the attack in advance.
Trump’s decisive action came six years after former President Barack Obama predicted that Assad’s “days are numbered,” only to see the Syrian civil war and Assad’s regime drag on for years. Obama failed to respond to a 2013 Syrian chemical attack, instead inviting Russia in.
U.S. officials are confident Syria carried out the attacks — not rebels, as Russia claims — which would be an embarrassment for President Vladimir Putin, who was credited as the deal-maker in Assad’s 2013 agreement to stop using chemical weapons.
“It is very clear who planned this attack, who authorized this attack and who executed this attack,” said Defense Secretary James Mattis yesterday, though he did not voice the claim that Russia knew in advance.
Tillerson will meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and other officials today. It’s possible Tillerson will also meet with Putin, as has become typical when a secretary of state travels to Russia, but no definite plans have been announced.
Both Tillerson and National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster have suggested Russia, heavily involved with Assad, needs to resolve the Syrian crisis. One possible area of agreement could involve convincing Putin to withdraw support from the murderous Assad in favor of a new regime that would still allow the Russians access to a friendly Syria and its strategic advantages, including proximity to the Mediterranean Sea.
Mattis, who vowed that the main objective in Syria is still eradicating ISIS, downplayed tension between the U.S. and Russia, claiming the relationship “will not spiral out of control.”