Moscow : The United States and Russia laid bare their deep and dangerous divides on Syria and other matters on Thursday, as America’s top diplomat left an almost two- hour meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin with the sense the countries have reached a “low point” in relations.
That candid assessment by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson reflected the former Cold War foes’ inability to forge greater cooperation, as President Donald Trump until recently has advocated. Even the one significant agreement Moscow suggested had been reached to investigate last week’s chemical weapons attack in Syria was quickly rejected by Washington.
“There is a low level of trust between our two countries,” Tillerson told reporters in Moscow. Only minutes earlier, his counterpart, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, had claimed the two countries agreed work together on a probe of the April 4 chemical weapons attack in northern Syria that prompted retaliatory American missile strikes. Washington blames Russia’s ally, Syrian President Bashar Assad, while Moscow says Syrian rebels are responsible.
But RC Hammond, a senior Tillerson aide, said flatly: “No agreements were reached.” And shortly afterward, Russia vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that would have demanded Syrian cooperation on the investigation.
More than 80 people were killed in what the US has described as a nerve gas attack that Assad’s forces undoubtedly carried out. Russia says rebels were responsible for whatever chemical agent was found, which the Trump administration calls a disinformation campaign. AP
