It seems the White House needs to work harder at unifying its message as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson seemed to put forward different views about the future of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. His message came just days after dozens of USA cruise missiles struck a Syrian air base in response to another massacre, a chemical attack that killed more than 80 people in rebel-held Idlib province.
In a shift in Washington's strategy, U.S. missiles hit a Syrian air base last week in retaliation for what the United States and its allies say was a poison gas attack by Syria's military in which scores of civilians died.
The US blames the Syrian regime for the chemical attack in Idlib province that killed at least 86 people, but it has also accused Russian Federation - an ally of the Damascus government - of being either complicit in the assault or not doing enough to stop it.
The Syrian foreign minister denied the government's involvement in the Idlib incident, saying it had never nor would it ever use chemical weapons on either civilians or terrorists operating in the country.
This is published unedited from the ANI feed.
"I think the real failure here has been Russia's failure to live up to its commitments under the chemical weapons agreements that were entered into in 2013", Tillerson said on ABC's "This Week".
"We rededicate ourselves to holding to account any and all who commit crimes against the innocents anywhere in the world", Tillerson said.
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Tillerson said the chemical attack had been preceded by two others in March.
Haley noted that ousting Assad was not the US's only priority.
The Trump administration is hoping that after defeating ISIS in Syria, it can restore stability by securing local cease-fires between Assad's government and opposition groups that allow local leaders who have fled to return and by restoring basic services. "That choice is to stick like glue to the Assad regime - that toxic regime which poisons its own people and is indeed poisoning the reputation of Russian Federation - or to work with the rest of world to find a political solution", he said.
Russian Federation and Iran - Assad's two principal global backers - have both warned they will respond "with force" to any further attacks on their ally.
"But I don't know what his thought process was then", she said.
The joint command centre also said the presence of U.S. troops in northern Syria where Washington has hundreds of special forces helping the Syrian Democratic Forces to oust Islamic State (IS) was "illegal" and that Washington had a long-term plan to occupy the area. In interviews broadcast Sunday, Tillerson said defeating the Islamic State group remains the top focus.
He emphasized that point on CBS' Face the Nation, noting that the administration is "hopeful ... we can navigate a political outcome in which the Syrian people, in fact, will determine Bashar al-Assad's fate and his legitimacy". He says we must also send a message to Russian Federation that the USA will stand firm with our allies. They said eight ISIL fighters and four of their own men died.
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