White House accuses Russia of Syria chemical attack 'cover up'

TILLERSON MESSAGE

Tillerson carried a message from world powers to Moscow denouncing Russian support for Assad, as the Trump administration took on America's traditional mantle as leader of a unified West.

Tillerson earlier met foreign ministers from the Group of Seven advanced economies and Middle Eastern allies in Italy.

They endorsed a joint call for Russia to abandon Assad.

"It is clear to us the reign of the Assad family is coming to an end," Tillerson told reporters in Italy. "We hope that the Russian government concludes that they have aligned themselves with an unreliable partner in Bashar al-Assad."

He said Russia had failed in its role as sponsor of a 2013 deal in which Assad promised to give up chemical weapons.

Russia says the chemicals that killed civilians last week belonged to rebels, not Assad's government, and accused the United States of an illegal aggression on a false pretext.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday he believed Washington planned more missile strikes, and that rebels were planning to stage chemical weapons attacks to provoke them.

"We have information that a similar provocation is being prepared ... in other parts of Syria including in the southern Damascus suburbs where they are planning to again plant some substance and accuse the Syrian authorities of using" chemical weapons, Putin said.

Trump denied further plans in Syria.

"We're not going into Syria," he said in an interview withthe New York Post. "Our policy is the same; it hasn't changed. We're not going into Syria."

A senior Trump administration official called Putin'sremarks part of a Russian "disinformation campaign."

The United States, Britain and France have proposed a revised draft resolution to the 15-member U.N. Security Council similar to a text they circulated last week pushing Syria's government to cooperate with investigators.

TURNING POINT

The secretary of state's role as messenger for a united G7 position is a turning point for Trump, who in the past alarmed allies by voicing skepticism about the value of US support for traditional friends, while calling for closer ties with Moscow.

Tillerson is a former chairman of oil company Exxon MobilCorp, which has gigantic projects in Russia. Putin awarded him Russia's "Order of Friendship" in 2013.

Tillerson is due to meet Russian Foreign Minister SergeiLavrov in Moscow on Wednesday. The Kremlin has said Tillerson has no meeting scheduled with Putin this trip, although some Russian media have reported such a meeting may take place.

Western countries have been calling for Assad's departure since 2011, the start of a civil war that has killed at least 400,000 people and created the world's worst refugee crisis.

Assad's position on the battlefield became far stronger after Russia joined the war to support him in 2015. The United States and its allies are conducting air strikes in Syria against Islamic State, but until last week Washington had avoided targeting forces of Assad's government directly.

US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Tuesday that the United States' military policy in Syria had not changed and remains focused on defeating Islamic State.

Reuters