RUSSIAN TO JUDGMENT
WH coy as official says Moscow knew
An American official declared Monday that Russia knew in advance about Syria’s deadly chemical-weapons attack on its own people — a comment that appeared to catch the White House offguard.
The senior official “confirmed” reports that a Russian-operated drone had flown over a hospital in Khan Sheikhun, Syria, as victims of the sarin assault rushed to get treatment.
Hours later, a Russian-made fighter bombed the hospital in what US officials believe was an attempt to destroying evidence of a chemical assault.
While the official conceded it still wasn’t clear whether a Russian or Syrian pilot was flying the fighter, he claimed that the drone’s presence could not have been a coincidence and that Russia must have known the chemical attack was coming and that victims would be rushed to the hospital.
But just a few hours later, the White House walked back the claim, saying, “At this time, there is no . . . consensus that Russia had foreknowledge of the Syrian chemical attack.”
Meanwhile, as tensions grew between the United States and Russia, the Kremlin dissed Secretary of State Rex Tillerson Monday by saying Vladimir Putin would not meet with him when Tillerson goes to Moscow this week.
“So far, there is no meeting with Tillerson on the president’s schedule,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, according to Russia’s state-controlled news operation RT.
“We never announce such meetings, whether they will take place or not — we won’t announce it,” he added.
America’s top diplomat had hoped for a sit-down with the Russian strongman to discuss Syria, as well as Russia’s meddling in the US presidential election.
Tillerson will instead meet with his direct counterpart, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Tillerson knows Putin from the secretary’s days as head of ExxonMobil and was even awarded Russia’s 2013 Order of Friendship medal by Putin himself.
But their relationship has gone icy cold because of the former executive’s tough talk on Russia.
Tillerson delivered the administration's first blistering condemnation of Russia hours after the chemical strikes, which killed 87 people, many of them women and children left convulsing and foaming from the mouth in the streets.
He said Moscow had “failed” to live up to its obligations under a 2013 agreement to strip Syria of its chemicalweapons stockpiles.
“Either Russia has been complicit or Russia has simply been incompetent in its ability to deliver on its end of that agreement,” he said.
As for the election, while President Trump has repeatedly dismissed the allegations of Russian involvement as “fake news,” the FBI and House and Senate intelligence committees have open investigations into the matter.