Tillerson faces tough talks in Moscow
amid increased tensions
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[April 11, 2017]
By Lesley Wroughton and Yeganeh Torbati
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of
State Rex Tillerson's visit to Moscow this week will be an early test of
whether the Trump administration can use any momentum generated by a
missile attack on a Syrian air base to craft and execute a strategy to
end the Syrian war.
Even before Trump ordered last week's strike in retaliation for a nerve
gas attack, Tillerson's visit was certain to be dominated by thorny
issues, including Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election, an
apparent violation of an important arms control treaty, and seeing what
cooperation, if any, is possible in the fight against Islamic State.
Now, Tillerson, a former oil executive with no diplomatic experience, is
charged with avoiding a major U.S. confrontation with Russia while
exacting some concessions from Moscow. Those include getting rid of
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's remaining chemical weapons and
pressing Assad to negotiate Syria's future.
The Kremlin said on Monday Tillerson was not scheduled to meet with
Russian President Vladimir Putin during his visit, a move that could
point to tensions.
It may also suggest that Tillerson will instead follow strict diplomatic
protocol and only meet his direct counterpart, Russian Foreign Minister
Sergei Lavrov. The State Department said last week a meeting had not
been confirmed with Putin, who met with Tillerson when the Texan headed
Exxon Mobil.
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.
Tillerson said he had not seen hard evidence that Russia 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.
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"I'm hopeful that we can have constructive talks with the Russian
government, with Foreign Minister Lavrov and have Russia be supportive
of a process that will lead to a stable Syria," Tillerson told ABC's
"The Week" on Sunday.
The U.S. cruise missile strike on Thursday, meant to dissuade Assad from
using chemical weapons again, gives Tillerson more credibility with
Russian officials and will boost his efforts, observers and former
officials said. Tillerson is due to meet with Russian officials on
Wednesday, and is expected to meet with Putin and Lavrov.
"The demonstration of the administration's willingness to use force has
the potential to add some leverage to the diplomacy," said Antony
Blinken, a deputy to former Secretary of State John Kerry.
The U.S. strike - ordered less than three days after the gas attack -
could make it clear to Russia that the United States will hold Moscow
accountable for Assad, Blinken said.
Tillerson ought to be "very matter of fact" in his meetings, Blinken
said, sending Russia a message that: "If you don't rein him in, we will
take further action."
Tillerson said on Thursday that Russia had "failed in its
responsibility" to remove Syria's chemical weapons under a 2013
agreement, which he argued showed Russia was either complicit with the
gas attacks or "simply incompetent." Securing a Russian commitment on
eliminating Assad's chemical weapons is likely to be first on his
agenda, said Evelyn Farkas, a former deputy assistant secretary of
defense in the Obama administration.
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![](../images/041117pics/news_t33.jpg)
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (L) gestures as he talks with
Italy's Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano (C) and E.U. High
Representative for Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini (R) during a
ceremony at the Sant'Anna di Stazzema memorial, dedicated to the
victims of the massacre committed in the village of Sant'Anna di
Stazzema by the Nazis in 1944 during World War II, Italy April 10,
2017. REUTERS/Max Rossi
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2017/Apr/11/images/ads/current/openarms_lda_EASTER_2017.png)
RUSSIAN LEVERAGE WITH ASSAD
The talks will be a major test of Tillerson's diplomatic skills. As a
former chief executive at Exxon Mobil, he has experience doing business
in Russia, but no background in the often public negotiations that
international diplomacy requires.
It also is unclear if Trump, who has expressed skepticism about
multilateral institutions such as the European Union and United Nations,
will have patience for the protracted negotiations that a comprehensive
deal on Syria would require.
Russia condemned the missile strike as illegal and Putin said it would
harm U.S.-Russia ties. Moscow also said it would keep military channels
of communication open with Washington, but would not exchange any
information through them.
It was an unforeseen turn of events for Trump, who praised Putin
repeatedly during last year's election campaign and said he would like
to work more closely with Russia to defeat Islamic State. Just over a
week ago, top administration officials were signaling that removing
Assad is no longer a U.S. priority.
But one senior official said it was significant that Russia suspended,
and did not cancel, cooperation with the United States after the air
strike. Nor did Lavrov cancel Tillerson's visit to Moscow, suggesting
Russia may be willing to tolerate the single strike. As of this weekend,
the talks were still on.
"They're going to try to draw a line around this incident," said
Alexander Vershbow, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia during the George
W. Bush administration. "They are still not giving up on working with
the Trump administration."
The Trump administration also wants to keep the focus in Syria on
defeating Islamic State rather than opening a conflict with Russia or
Syria's government.
Another U.S. official said one hope is that Moscow will see Tillerson's
visit and a discussion about how to cooperate to stop Assad's use of
banned weapons as a tacit acknowledgement of Russia's great power
status, one of Putin's main ambitions.
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"The strikes aren't necessarily a bad thing for Russia," said Andrew
Tabler, a fellow with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
"Russia's had a very hard time getting President Assad to come to the
negotiating table in any kind of meaningful way."
Now, Tabler said, the Russians can point to more U.S. strikes as the
price of further intransigence by Assad.
(Editing by John Walcott, Bill Trott and James Dalgleish)
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