While Russia just prior to the strike on Syria said their support for President al-Assad wasn't unconditional, they released a joint statement with Iran on Sunday.
It wasn't clear what the punishment would be for a Russian government that has used its military might to help Assad and his array of allies score a series of battlefield successes in their six-year war with Syrian opposition groups.
The Trump administration says that ambiguity is intentional. "And we believe that the first priority is the defeat of ISIS", Mr Tillerson said in an interview with CBS television's "Face the Nation" later Sunday. "Or Russia can maintain its alliance with this group, which we believe is not going to serve Russia's interests longer term".
From Italy, Tillerson will travel to Moscow, becoming the first Trump administration official to visit Russian Federation.
"Three months ago Syria wasn't really an issue for them but our push and recent events have made a difference". Washington and Moscow are trading sharp accusations about a chemical weapons attack last week in Syria.
Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano says Russian Federation must not be "pushed into a corner" over Syria, as the Group of Seven ignored calls by Britain and the US for new sanctions on Moscow over its support of President Bashar Assad.
"President Trump and his counterparts agreed to stay in touch regarding Syria and other worldwide issues of mutual concern".
On Monday, Trump discussed Syria by telephone with British Prime Minister Theresa May and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The US fired 59 Tomahawk missiles at the Syrian airbase after more than 80 people were killed, including children, in chemical weapons attack in Idlib province.
Tillerson said he had not seen hard evidence that Russian Federation knew ahead of time about the chemical weapons attack, which killed at least 70 people, but he planned to urge Moscow to rethink its support for Assad in the April 12 talks.
Pentagon said earlier that the memorandum did not envisage providing Moscow with information about targets in Syria.
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The US military claimed the airfield targeted was used to store chemical weapons and Syrian aircraft.
"If you gas a baby or drop a barrel bomb onto innocent people, you will see a response from" President Donald Trump, Spicer said.
"And as the president has repeatedly made clear, he will not be telegraphing his military responses".
The parallels haven't gone unnoticed by Russian President Vladimir Putin as US officials have accused his military of knowing about Assad's recent chemical weapons attack ahead of time and trying to help cover it up.
He said if the Russians continued to support the regime in Damascus, they would be "contaminated" by its actions and could find themselves the target of new worldwide sanctions.
Japan's Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said he told Tillerson that Tokyo supports the United States in its push to "deter the spread and use of chemical weapons", and discussed the pressing North Korean nuclear threat.
Tillerson made plain that the chemical attack last week in Syria was unacceptable to the USA, and that the US retaliatory missile strike against a Syrian base presented Russian Federation with a choice: either continue to side with Syria, Iran and the militant group Hezbollah, or join with the USA and other likeminded countries.
Iran and North Korea have slammed Washington's retaliation and put it on a direct diplomatic collision course with Moscow, where Tillerson heads today for talks with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.
For one, the comment comes just a few days after the United States attacked Syria, over U.S. allegations of a "gas attack" carried out by the Syrian government, but before any sort of worldwide investigation could be carried out on the claims. As the Federal Bureau of Investigation and multiple congressional committees investigate potential collusion between Russia and Trump's campaign in last year's USA election, Trump can point to his hard-line stance as fresh evidence that he's far from beholden to the Russian leader.
Syria's government has denied any involvement in Tuesday's attack on Khan Sheikhun, suspected to be the second-deadliest chemical weapons attack since the country's war began in March 2011.
"There is no consensus on additional new sanctions", Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano said. Putin said that either gas belonging to the rebels was released when it was hit by a Syrian strike on a rebel arms dump, or the rebels faked the incident to discredit Assad.
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