Counterterrorism on agenda for Tillerson's visit, says Russian FM

MOSCOW - Russia intends to discuss international counterterrorism with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson during his visit next week, despite clouded Russia-United States ties, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharov said on Saturday.

"We have a multitude of topics, among which international counterterrorism is of great significance," Zakharov told Russia's Rossiya-1 TV channel.

"Moscow is ready to cooperate with Washington even at the toughest moment of bilateral relations."

The US military fired 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at a Syrian military airfield in the central province of Homs on Thursday, raising tensions for Russia-US ties.

"We will listen to what Tillerson has to say (about the missile strike). It is necessary to make it absolutely clear that such US military action is unacceptable to us," the spokeswoman added.

According to a Pentagon statement, the strike was in response to the Syrian government's chemical attack on Tuesday in the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun in the country's northwestern province of Idlib.

Noting that the US has recently launched an investigation into the chemical attack, Zakharov said the US strike on Syria is not in line with its stated attempts to discover the truth about the incident.

"They carried out strikes on the hardware that they wanted to inspect. This has absolutely nothing to do with attempts to find out what happened to the chemical weapons," Zakharov said.

The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed on Friday the suspension of the memorandum of understanding on the prevention of flight safety incidents in Syria with the US, which was signed in 2015.

Meanwhile, Russian media have reported that a warship, the frigate Admiral Grigorovich, had moved into the eastern Mediterranean Sea as part of Moscow's response to the US cruise missile strikes.

The frigate joined a group of at least six warships off the coast of Syria, according to Russian state media.

The Admiral Grigorovich carries Kalibr cruise missiles, the Russian equivalent to the US Tomahawk missiles fired at Shayrat, and has previously fired them at targets in the war-torn country.