United States President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson sought on Wednesday (April 12) to isolate President Vladimir Putin of Russian Federation for backing the Syrian government in the wake of its lethal chemical weapons attack on civilians, and worked to build worldwide pressure on Moscow to change course.
Russian Federation on Friday criticised the world's chemical weapons watchdog for not sending experts to the site of an alleged chemical attack in Syria, backing up President Bashar Assad's regime.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, after meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, said relations between the countries are 'at a low point'.
In Washington, Moscow and NY, the Trump administration publicly chastised Putin but privately worked to hash out increasingly bitter differences with him.
Russian Federation has vetoed a Western-backed Security Council resolution that would have condemned the reported use of chemical weapons in a town in northern Syria and demanded a speedy investigation.
Russia, as Syria's closest ally, has the "best means" to help the country "recognise this reality", Tillerson said.
The UN motion also would have forced the Syrian Assad government to cooperate in an global investigation into the incident.
This was the 8th time during Syria's six-year-old civil war that Moscow used its veto power to block a resolution against Assad's government.
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The U.S. launched nearly 59 missiles last week at the air base where, officials say, the chemical attack originated.
The Syrian government agreed to surrender its chemical weapons stocks to an worldwide watchdog after the deaths of hundreds in a rebel-held suburb of Damascus in 2013, although the opposition has long accused the regime of holding back some of its supply.
China, which has vetoed six resolutions on Syria since the civil war began, abstained from Wednesday's United Nations vote, along with Ethiopia and Kazakhstan.
The fact-finding mission was sent by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague to gather bio-metric samples and interview survivors, sources told Reuters on Thursday.
"We have seen very alarming actions recently with an unlawful attack against Syria", Lavrov said, referring to the 59 Tomahawk missiles Trump launched at an air base to punish Assad for using chemical weapons. He said Assad's government was responsible.
Trump said, "I would like to think that they didn't know, but certainly they could have".
"Definitely, 100 percent for us, it's fabrication..."
While it's willing to respond to "specific proof", there are many people who are eager "to undermine our relations in order to promote their domestic political and maybe foreign policy ambitions", Lavrov said. Trump said it was "certainly possible" though "probably unlikely". "Nato is the most successful military alliance in human history".
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