Tillerson: Assad Has Brought Being Called an 'Animal' Upon Himself

MARGARET WARNER: Tillerson insisted again that Syria's government did carry out the attack, and he called again for Russian Federation to abandon President Bashar al-Assad.

Trump has blamed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for the chemical attack.

And despite hopes that US-Russia ties would improve under a Trump presidency, Mr Putin said: "One could say that the level of trust on a working level, especially on the military level, has not improved, but rather has deteriorated".

"To my colleagues from Russian Federation - you are isolating yourselves from the global community every time one of Assad's planes drop another barrel bomb on civilians and every time Assad tries to starve another community to death", Haley said during a Security Council meeting earlier on Wednesday. In an interview on Fox Business Network airing Wednesday, President Trump criticized Putin's support of the Assad regime.

MARGARET WARNER: Mr. Trump followed up at a joint White House news conference with NATO's secretary-general.

He then launched into a condemnation of Assad and seemed to blame Russian Federation for propping up the Syrian president. Tillerson conceded the two world powers had "sharp differences" that have obstructed cooperation but voiced optimism that their talks could narrow those differences.

REX TILLERSON, U.S. Secretary of State: The current state of U.S. -Russia relations is at a low point. On Tuesday, he blasted Russian Federation for not living up to its 2013 commitment to eliminate Assad's chemical weapons stockpile.

Russia, along with Iran, is Assad's primary backer, and its intervention in Syria's war has been crucial to ensuring his grip on power, although no longer over the entire country. Until the chemical attack, the Trump administration had sought to step back from the U.S. position that Assad should leave power.

Russian Federation has accused the USA of breaking worldwide law with its missile strike on Syria last week. I think it's very bad for mankind.

"I think the perspective from the United States, supported by the facts that we have, are conclusive".

Steeped in geopolitical intrigue, the meeting between Putin and Tillerson wasn't formally confirmed until the last minute, following days of speculation about whether the Russian would refuse to grant the former oil executive an audience.

Lavrov said Russian Federation has no intnetion to "shield anyone", adding that a United Nations chemical weapons watchdog must conduct an "objective and unbiased probe" into the attack that killed dozens of people.

"We have continued to deconflict as necessary with the Russians", as USA air operations continue, but declined to comment how those talks were being handled, Col. Thomas told reporters at the Pentagon.

"Are we going to get involved with Syria?"

Sergey Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, said Russia had lots of questions about the Trump administration's "very ambiguous" and "contradictory" ideas.

Britain's UN Ambassador Matthew Rycroft told the UNSC that samples taken from the site of the gas attack, in an opposition-held area of northern Syria, have tested positive for the nerve gas sarin.