Syria will be the central topic of discussion at Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's visit to Moscow this week. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Syria will be the central topic of discussion at Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's visit to Moscow this week, following President Donald Trump's decision to launch 59 Tomahawk missiles against a Syrian military base that suddenly and dramatically heightened tensions between the two nations.
Whether the U.S. and Russia can cooperate is
unclear, particularly as U.S. intelligence agencies investigate the
extent to which Russia may have been complicit in Assad's chemical weapons attack on April 4 against civilians, including many children.
Sharp rhetoric has escalated quickly between Washington and Moscow. Immediately after Thursday's strike,
Tillerson raised questions about Russia's involvement, saying Moscow
was either "complicit or simply incompetent" in its attempts to prevent a
chemical weapons attack and that Russia had been "outmaneuvered by
Assad." In a joint statement, Russia and Iran reportedly said the attack
had crossed a "red line" and that they would "respond with force" to
future hostility.
Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov backed away from those remarks,
indicating he was uncertain of the source, but the Russian president
and his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Rouhani, were said to have discussed
the strikes during a phone call Sunday and characterized the attack as
unacceptable.
Going into the summit, it was yet unclear
whether Tillerson, who has deep connections in Moscow having previously
served as the CEO of Exxon Mobil, would actually meet with Putin. Russia
said on Monday the two would not meet in Moscow.
It also remains unclear what either Moscow or Washington hopes to achieve in Syria.
Russia has fought in Syria in support of the
Assad regime since 2015 and has significant interests there, not in the
least its only foreign naval base at Tartus and an air base in Latakia
created after its intervention. It has deployed thousands of forces and
dozens of warplanes to help quell the civil uprising against the
government.
Yet Moscow may not be prepared to fight for
Assad to stay in power, pushing instead for some sort of alternative
rule that leaves its influence in Syria intact.
Photos: Trump's Syria Attack
EXPAND GALLERY
Intentions for Syria are also unclear on the
U.S. side, where top members of the Trump administration appear to have
differing opinions on the extent to which the U.S. should determine
Assad's fate.
Tillerson himself appears open to Assad staying in power, telling CBS' "Face the Nation on Sunday, "the president has been quite clear: First and foremost, we must defeat ISIS."
Speaking later on ABC, Tillerson said he hopes
he can create a political process with Russia that would then allow for
the Syrian people to ultimately decide on Assad's fate.
Nikki Haley, Trump's ambassador to the U.N., told CNN, "we don't see a peaceful Syria with Assad in there."
White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Monday
the ideas do not contradict and that it's possible to focus primarily on
the Islamic State group, or ISIS, and also create "the environment for a
change in political leadership."
When asked about any contradiction on Sunday,
Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, the national security adviser, brought it
back to Russia.
"This is a great opportunity for the Russian
leadership to re-evaluate what they're doing, why they are supporting a
regime that is committing mass murder against its own people," McMaster
told Fox News Sunday. "And so, Russia could be part of the solution."
McMaster added, "everyone in the world sees
Russia as part of the problem," prompting the central question of
whether Moscow has any intention of cooperating with the Trump
administration.
Russia was initially furious at the U.S.
Tomahawk strike into Syria last week. with its officials immediately
claiming they had cut off the communication channel they established
with the U.S. to deconflict the airspace over Syria – a claim the
Pentagon at first contradicted and then backed away from discussing
publicly over the weekend. A spokesman for U.S. Central Command on
Monday said the U.S. would no longer comment on its methods of
communications with Russia.
Pentagon officials also confirmed last week,
following the Tomahawk strikes, that they had tracked a drone circling
above the hospital where the victims of Tuesday's chemical attack were
being treated. An airstrike shortly after destroyed the hospital, which
the officials believed was designed to eliminate evidence of the
chemical attack.
Defense officials this week would offer no
further comment, saying they had passed the information over to
intelligence agencies investigating whether the drone was Russian, a
claim which, if true, could implicate Moscow in the Assad chemical
attack and make future cooperation more difficult.
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