Brit PM and Trump: ‘Window of Opportunity’ exists to persuade Russia to break ties with Syria

Secretary Tillerson arrived in Moscow Tuesday following a meeting in Italy of the G7  (Group of 7 industrialized nations: US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan).

After the meeting, calling  the strike a “game changer,” British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said support for the Syrian president “was toxifying the reputation of Russia” and suggested sanctions could be imposed on Moscow if it refused to change course.

“What we’re trying to do is to give Rex Tillerson the clearest possible mandate from us as the West, the UK, all our allies here, to say to the Russians ‘this is your choice: stick with that guy, stick with that tyrant, or work with us to find a better solution’,” Johnson said after meeting Tillerson.

Before leaving Italy, Tillerson issued a new U.S. demand for the eventual removal of Mr. Assad, who is blamed by the U.S. and West for the long-running civil war in Syria.

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

Tillerson said Russia had failed in its role as sponsor of a 2013 deal made by the Obama administration under which Assad promised to give up his chemical arsenal.

“These agreements stipulated Russia as the guarantor of a Syria free of chemical weapons,” Tillerson said. “It is unclear whether Russia failed to take this obligation seriously and whether Russia has been incompetent. But this distinction doesn’t much matter to the dead. We can’t let this happen again.”

U.S. officials said the air strike and renewed pressure from the international community could help Mr. Tillerson make his case to Russia.

Reuters reported: U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson carried a unified message from world powers to Moscow, denouncing Russian support for Syria and taking up America’s traditional role as leader of the West on behalf of Donald Trump’s administration.

Ahead of Mr. Tillerson’s arrival, the Russian Foreign Ministry in a statement blamed the U.S. for pursuing a policy of “American exceptionalism,” that tried to punish Russia economically and limit its influence in international affairs.

“Russia, of course, is not going to surrender its legitimate interests and accepts cooperation only on an equal basis, which is not to everyone’s liking in Washington,” the statement read. “We, however, have always been and remain open to the most frank dialogue with the U.S. on any issues on the bilateral and international agenda and for joint work in areas where the goals coincide.”

Although the State Department began planning Mr. Tillerson’s trip before the deadly chemical weapons attack last week in Syria, that event and the U.S. response have fueled tensions between Moscow and Washington and have raised the stakes of the visit.

“The most important factor for Putin is not loyalty to Assad, but stability of the Syrian regime, which enables Russia to hold a significant geopolitical position in the Middle East. He could conceivably achieve that in a post-Assad scenario. So there is room for negotiation on that point,” said Matthew Rojansky, a Russia expert at the Wilson Center in Washington.

Secretary Tillerson’s visit beginning Tuesday is his first official trip to Moscow, but had met with Putin when CEO of Exxon Mobil, which has gigantic projects in Russia. He was awarded Russia’s “Order of Friendship” by Putin in 2013.

Tillerson is set to meet Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov. A Kremlin spokesman said Monday that a meeting between Mr. Tillerson and Mr. Putin wasn’t on the Russian leader’s calendar, despite earlier U.S. expectations of such a session.

Current and former officials who have planned such trips said it isn’t unusual for a meeting with Mr. Putin to remain uncertain until the last minute, but that usually the Russian leader grants an audience to the U.S. Secretary of State.