MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday met US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson after complaining of worsening ties with Donald Trump鈥檚 administration as the two sides spar over Syria.
Putin received Tillerson at the Kremlin along with Russia鈥檚 Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov after the top diplomats held several hours of talks dominated by the fallout of an alleged chemical attack in Syria.
Despite initial hopes in Moscow of better ties with the US under Trump, the two powers have descended into a furious war of words over the incident and a retaliatory US missile strike against the forces of Moscow鈥檚 ally Bashar Assad last week.
Russia has slammed Washington鈥檚 attack on a Syrian airbase and, as Tillerson met Lavrov, Putin admitted that relations between Washington and Moscow have worsened in the three months that Trump has been in office.
鈥淵ou can say that the level of trust on a working level, especially on the military side, has not improved but most likely worsened,鈥� Putin said in the transcript of an interview with Mir television released by the Kremlin.
鈥淲here is the proof that Syrian troops used chemical weapons? There isn鈥檛 any. But there was a violation of international law. That is an obvious fact.鈥�
Tillerson, a former oil executive, might once have looked like the perfect envoy to mend strained ties, having worked closely with the Kremlin while negotiating deals for energy giant ExxonMobil.
But the underlying tensions between the former Cold War foes never went away and last week鈥檚 chemical attack has left ties once again in crisis.
At the start of his meeting with Lavrov, Tillerson said he wanted to 鈥渃larify areas of common objectives, areas of common interest 鈥� even where our tactical approaches may be different 鈥� and further clarify areas of sharp difference.鈥�
During his visit 鈥� the first to Moscow by a senior Trump administration official 鈥� Tillerson was expected to challenge Russia to distance itself from Assad and his Iranian backers, an idea that the Kremlin dismissed as 鈥渁bsurd.鈥�
Lavrov told Tillerson Moscow was hoping to understand Washington鈥檚 鈥渞eal intentions鈥� and warned that the Kremlin considered it 鈥渇undamentally important鈥� to prevent more 鈥渦nlawful鈥� US strikes against its ally Syria.
In a further indication of the stark differences, Russia also slammed as 鈥渦nacceptable鈥� a proposed UN resolution put forward by the US, Britain and France on the alleged chemical attack, and said it would veto it in its current form at a vote expected later Wednesday.
The Western-backed resolution 鈥� which was slightly revised from a proposal presented last week 鈥� demands that the Syrian government cooperate with an investigation into the alleged attack.
As tempers rose ahead of Tillerson鈥檚 visit, US officials suggested Russian forces may have colluded in the latest atrocity blamed on Assad鈥檚 regime that left 87 civilians dead including children in the town of Khan Sheikhun.
The White House compared Assad鈥檚 tactics to those of World War II Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, sparking widespread criticism for apparently ignoring the Holocaust.
Putin meanwhile accused Assad鈥檚 opponents of planning to stage chemical attacks to be blamed on Damascus in order to lure the United States deeper into the conflict.
In a sign that the Kremlin is not set to drop its firm support for Assad Syria鈥檚 foreign minister is set to jet in to Moscow for talks with Lavrov on Friday before a three-way meeting involving Iran鈥檚 top diplomat on Friday.
As the powerbrokers wrangled over the six-year war in Syria that has cost some 320,000 lives, a deal on the ground to evacuate four besieged towns began Wednesday with an exchange of prisoners between rebels and government forces, local sources and state media said.
Thousands of people, both civilians and fighters, are expected to begin leaving government-held Fuaa and Kafraya and opposition-controlled Madaya and Zabadani later Wednesday.
The evacuations of the four besieged towns come under an agreement brokered by rebel backer Qatar and government ally Iran last month.
Putin meets Tillerson as US, Russia wrangle over Syria
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