U.S. accuses Russian Federation of trying to cover up Syria chemical-weapons attack

And then toxic gas rained down on Idlib province.

Trump further argued that Assad's use of chemical weapons on civilians makes the Syrian leader "an animal". But as Mr. Kerry could tell Mr. Tillerson, even that won't fly with Mr. Putin unless the United States is willing to show greater resolve.

Now, instead of casually threatening to abandon America's existing North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies, Trump is welcoming Montenegro into the alliance. Mattis said the administration's new plan for defeating IS is "being fleshed out", suggesting that it will not be ready for implementation anytime soon.

Spicer's remarks came as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson made his first official visit to Moscow, where he is expected to press Russian Federation to choose between Syria and the West.

In response to a surge of violence in eastern Ukraine by pro-Russia separatists, Tillerson is likely to remind Russian officials of their commitments under the 2015 Minsk agreement, namely the importance of enforcing the ceasefire.

"We have reports from multiple sources that false flags like this one - and I can not call it otherwise - are being prepared in other parts of Syria, including the southern suburbs of Damascus", Putin said Tuesday of last week's gas attack in Idlib, at a press conference with Italian president Sergio Mattarella. According to the US government, last week's attack showed that the Syrian government retained stockpiles of its most deadly chemicals. As Philip Gordon, a former senior official in the Obama administration, explained in a commentary for The Post, Mr. Putin is dead set against "regime change" in Syria or anywhere else the West seeks the removal of a dictator. "It was not a harbinger of some change in our military campaign".

"Moscow's response to the April 4 attack follows a familiar pattern of its responses to other egregious actions", the report argues. They realize the global community didn't buy it and is not buying it.

Russian Federation has rejected suggestions from the outset that the Syrian government was behind a gas attack in Idlib province which killed more than 80 people, including many children.

But his efforts floundered as Germany and some other European Union countries were unwilling to press ahead with the reprisals - insisting on waiting for a full investigation into the chemical weapons attack on Idlib province that killed scores of civilians.

"I think that they knew, yes", Haley said.

"I recommend Assad be rather cautious about violating worldwide law with chemical weapons", he said.

The officials also questioned whether Russian Federation had a role in the attack and suggested it may have known that its ally Syria was planning to use sarin. Russia, Assad's staunchest ally, has insisted that Assad is blameless and that it was actually the rebels responsible for the disbursed chemical weapons.

A thaw in relations between the United States and Russian Federation seems unlikely, and even common ground will be hard to find.

The extent of tensions and disagreements between the United States and Russia will be on display on Wednesday when US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson meets in Moscow with his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in a much anticipated encounter.