Russian ties 'at low point' as Syria tensions rise

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Earlier, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the US-UK-France-backed draft resolution on the chemical weapons in Syria is based on fake reports mosty from the White Helmets and the SOHR "which can not be called reliable".

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson enter a hall during their meeting in Moscow, Russia, April 12, 2017.

President Donald Trump says Russian President Vladimir Putin is backing an "evil person" in Syria.

Some of Washington's allies had been wary of Trump, who spoke during his election campaign of seeking closer ties with Moscow and questioned the value of USA support for its traditional friends. "This is just the latest use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime", he said.

Previously Trump has been critical of Yellen and previously said it was unlikely he would re-appoint her.

It was unclear whether Putin, who once gave Tillerson an "Order of Friendship" award, would grant the visiting American an audience.

The majority of the global community has blamed the attack in Idlib province, which killed 87 people including many children, on Syria's President Bashar al-Assad.

UK ambassador to the United Nations Matthew Rycroft said it was "indefensible" for Russian Federation to support the Syrian regime, as UK scientists in Porton Down confirmed that samples from the scene tested positive for a toxic chemical known as sarin.

Following his meeting with Lavrov, Tillerson met with Putin in surprise sit-down that wasn't formally confirmed until the last minute. The diplomats know each other well from Tillerson's days as Exxon Mobil CEO.

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Lavrov said that he had requested evidence that Russian Federation interfered with the USA elections, but that he has seen nothing resembling fact.

Mr Tillerson kept to more calibrated remarks, saying he looked forward to a "very open, candid, frank exchange" to better define the US-Russian relationship.

But neither side cited much in the way of concrete new avenues of cooperation, beyond establishing a working group to address what Tillerson called "smaller issues".

Russian President Vladimir Putin is considering reopening a vital battlefield communications node between his forces and US troops in Syria, which had been shuttered since Washington's strike on Syrian forces last week.

But Mr Tillerson repeated the administration's new belief that "the reign of the Assad family is coming to an end".

"So I am dismayed that Russian Federation has once again blocked the UN Security Council and in so doing refused to condemn the use of chemical weapons or support a full UN investigation into the attack". "We consider it of utmost importance to prevent the risks of replay of similar action in the future".

As Tillerson sat down for talks with Lavrov earlier on Wednesday, a senior Russian official assailed the "primitiveness and loutishness" of USA rhetoric, part of a volley of statements that appeared timed to maximise the awkwardness during the first visit by a member of Trump's Cabinet.

Only weeks ago, it appeared that Trump, who praised Putin throughout the US election campaign, was poised for a potentially historic rapprochement with Russian Federation. It's unclear whether Putin will grant Tillerson a meeting. "We're going to see how that all works out". "I think it's very bad for mankind", Trump told Fox Business News.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's sudden about-face on the Syrian gas attack last week had politics and appeasing the Americans written all over it, an expert in Middle Eastern policy says.

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