Those include getting rid of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's remaining chemical weapons stocks and pressing Assad to negotiate Syria's future. Tillerson said he had not seen hard evidence that Russia knew ahead of time about the chemical weapons attack but he planned to urge Moscow to rethink its support for Assad in the April 12 talks. The U.S. cruise missile strike on Thursday, meant to dissuade Assad from using chemical weapons again, gives Tillerson more credibility with Russian officials and will boost his efforts, observers and former officials said. Tillerson is due to meet with Russian officials on Wednesday, and is expected to meet with Putin and Lavrov. Nor did Lavrov cancel Tillerson's visit to Moscow, suggesting that Russia may be willing to tolerate the single strike.

Source: bd News24 April 10, 2017 04:52 UTC