US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will try to extract concessions from Moscow, which is angry over the US strike on Syria. Now, Tillerson, a former oil executive with no diplomatic experience, is charged with avoiding a major US confrontation with Russia while exacting some concessions from Moscow. Those include getting rid of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's remaining chemical weapons and pressing Assad to negotiate Syria's future. Moscow also said it would keep military channels of communication open with Washington, but would not exchange any information through them. Nor did Lavrov cancel Tillerson's visit to Moscow, suggesting Russia may be willing to tolerate the single strike.

Source: Bangkok Post April 10, 2017 15:33 UTC