Tillerson: Russia either irresponsible or incompetent in failing to rid Assad of WMDs

Ahead of his visit there, secretary of state castigates Moscow, says it must choose between Iran axis and the US

ed note–remember, if the end goal in the missile strikes was to create the impression that Trump is not ‘Putin’s Puppet’, than that means a mini ‘cold-war’ must appear to exist between the two and therefore all of this growling and snarling must take place for maximum effect, so anyone fashioning him/herself as a real ‘thinker’ in this ‘muuvmint’ should not jump the gun and make assumptions based upon superficial statements that are intended for public consumption.

Times of Israel

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.”

“Russia has failed to uphold the agreements that have been entered into under multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions,” Tillerson said. “These agreements stipulated Russia as the guarantor of a Syria free of chemical weapons.”

Syria’s stockpiling and continued use of chemical weapons show that “Russia failed in its responsibility to deliver on this 2013 commitment,” he went. “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. We cannot let this happen again.”

“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 US 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 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,” which he said he “hopes” Assad will not be a part of.

“That’s why we are not presupposing how that occurs,” Tillerson added.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault also told reporters that the G7 ministers agreed that “no future in Syria is possible with Bashar Assad,” Ayrault told reporters.

He said the message for Russia was: “That’s enough now. There must be an end to hypocrisy and a very clear return to the political process.”

“This is not an aggressive stance towards Russia, rather a hand out-held, with clear intentions,” Ayrault said.

Tillerson also 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 transition — 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 industrialized economies in Italy, days after the US for the first time launched airstrikes against Assad’s forces.

A key focus since the chemical attack has been on increasing pressure on Russia, Assad’s strongest ally, which has used its own military to keep Assad in power. The US and others have said that Russia bears responsibility for the deaths of civilians at the hands of Assad given Moscow’s role in guaranteeing the 2013 deal in which Assad was supposed to have given up his chemical weapons arsenal.

The US raised the stakes significantly on Monday when a senior US official said Washington has made a preliminary conclusion that Russia knew in advance of Syria’s chemical weapons attack. Yet the US has no proof of Moscow’s involvement, said the official, who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly on intelligence matters and demanded anonymity.

That accusation will hang over Tillerson’s visit to Moscow, where he plans to meet with Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, and possibly with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin declined to say whether Putin would meet with Tillerson, in line with its usual practice of not announcing such meetings ahead of time.

The United States has sought to minimize expectations for the trip or the likelihood that the US will leave with any concessions from Russia regarding its support for Assad. Instead, the US is hoping to use the visit — the first by a Trump Cabinet official to Russia — to convey its expectations to Moscow and then allow the Russians a period of time to respond.

Though intended to punish Assad for a chemical weapons attack, the US strikes last week served to refocus the world’s attention on the bloody war in Syria, now in its seventh year. Diplomats gathered in Italy as US officials in Washington floated the possibility of new sanctions on the Syrian and Russian military, plus the threat of additional US military action if Assad’s government continues attacking civilians.

At Tuesday’s meeting in the walled Tuscan city of Lucca, the G-7 countries were joined by diplomats from Muslim-majority nations including Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. The inclusion of those countries is important because the U.S. strategy for Syria involves enlisting help from Mideast nations to ensure security and stability in Syria after the Islamic State group is vanquished