On April 6, the United States had launched 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at the Syrian military airfield in Ash Sha'irat in response to the alleged chemical weapon use in Idlib province.
Moscow, Apr 12 The United States and Russia laid bare their deep and unsafe divides on Syria and other matters today, as America's top diplomat left an nearly two- hour meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin with the sense the countries have reached a "low point" in relations.
Tillerson also held what he called a "productive" two-hour long meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
U.S. Central Command said Thursday that coalition aircraft were given the wrong coordinates by their partner forces, the predominantly-Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces, for a strike meant to target Islamic State militants south of their Tabqa stronghold.
Obama in 2013 sought approval from Congress for a military strike in Syria in retaliation for a chemical weapons attack, but didn't get it, a decision that likely haunted the remainder of his presidency.
Lavrov on Friday said the investigation should be widened to include more experts instead of relying exclusively on the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
Before travelling to Moscow for talks with his Russian and Syrian counterparts, Zarif criticised Washington's unilateral move and reiterated his call for an impartial global investigation into the attack, Efe news reported.
North Korea Is Finally Getting The Attention It's Always Wanted
China on Friday warned the USA and North Korea to cool their aggressive posturing as tensions rise on the Korean Peninsula. By the 1990s, North Korea used the threat of withdrawing from that treaty to win concessions from the West.
The rift between Washington and Moscow was laid bare as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Russian President Vladimir Putin failed to ease deepening tensions over Syria.
During the press conference Lavrov acriticised the ability of the OPCW to carry out an investigation into the reported chemical attack on Khan Sheikhoun, calling for American and Russian experts to join the investigation.
The foreign ministers from Russia, Syria and Iran, meeting Friday in Moscow, said any further unilateral action by the U.S.in Syria would be met with "grave consequences" and pose a danger to the entire world.
Russia's deputy United Nations envoy, Vladimir Safronkov, said the draft resolution laid blame prior to an independent investigation.
France's U.N. Ambassador Francois Delattre said "with this attack, the Syrian regime has plumbed new depths of horror".
Publications in the USA and the United Kingdom, among others, have highlighted "many inconsistencies" in the version of events in Syria's Idlib province that was used to justify the American air strikes, he said.
"We discussed our view that Russian Federation as their closest ally in the conflict perhaps has the best means of helping Assad recognise this reality", he said. He said the two sides would also discuss disagreements on Syria and how to end the country's six-year civil war.
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