NEW YORK // Bashar Al Assad’s days as president of Syria are numbered and he will have no role in its future, the US secretary of state Rex Tillerson said yesterday.
The Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov also gave the first hint that Moscow’s support for the Assad regime was not guaranteed. “We are not placing our hopes in Assad or any other person in Syria,” Mr Lavrov said, and it was not Russia’s intention to protect anyone.
Mr Tillerson said: “I think it is clear to all of us that the reign of the Assad family is coming to an end.”
The two men spoke after a tense day of talks in Moscow, at which the Russian president Vladimir Putin made an unscheduled appearance for a two-hour meeting with the secretary of state.“There is a low level of trust between our two countries,” Mr Tillerson said. “The world’s two foremost nuclear powers cannot have this kind of relationship.”
He said they had discussed whether Russia had a role to play in persuading Mr Al Assad that his time in power was at an end. “We do think it’s important that Assad’s departure is done in an orderly way so that certain interests and constituencies he represents feel they have been represented at the negotiating table for a political solution.
“How that occurs we leave to the process going forward.”
Earlier, the Russian foreign minister had accused the United States of launching an unlawful strike in Syria. Mr Tillerson, however, warned Russia that backing Mr Al Assad – and his allies in Iran and Hizbollah – risked international isolation.
The run-up to the meetings was overshadowed by an exchange of accusations that one side or the other was undermining international law. The Trump administration had accused Russia of trying to cover up the gas attack that killed 87 people in Syria while the Russian foreign minister accused the United States of launching an unlawful air strike in Syria.
Nevertheless, Mr Putin still managed to dominate the day’s headlines by granting Mr Tillerson an unscheduled eleventh-hour meeting that lasted almost two hours.
The two men know each other from Mr Tillerson’s days as chief executive of ExxonMobil and the Russian president had even presented Mr Tillerson with a friendship honour. But yesterday’s meeting was preceded by feverish speculation as to whether the Russian leader would grant his old acquaintance an audience this time.
The fact that he did signalled to Kremlin-watchers that a diplomatic dance was under way, as the two sides moved closer to cooperation behind a smokescreen of stern rhetoric.
Michael Rubin, of the American Enterprise Institute and a former Pentagon official, said the US’s unilateral strike on Syria offered Mr Putin a clear definition of where Washington’s red lines lay.
“The question then becomes what are Russia’s red lines? And Russia’s red lines are not necessarily keeping Assad in power. Rather, it is keeping a pro-Russia regime in power,” he said. “And so I suspect we’re going to have a diplomatic dance starting about whether there are any generals in Assad’s inner circle that can take over.”
The day of diplomatic drama extended to New York, where Russia for the eighth time vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution condemning the chemical weapons attack and urging the Syrian regime to cooperate with an investigation to determine who was responsible..
On his arrival in Moscow Mr Tillerson was given a decidedly frosty reception before the cameras by Mr Lavrov, and the three-hour discussions that followed were said to be fraught.
Mr Lavrov said Moscow was still trying to understand the “real intentions” of the Trump administration.
“We have seen very alarming actions recently with an unlawful attack against Syria,” he said.
“We consider it of utmost importance to prevent the risks of replay of similar action in the future.”
Mr Trump’s choice of Mr Tillerson as secretary of state, with his known connections to Russia, reflected the president’s frequently-expressed admiration during his election campaign for Mr Putin’s leadership style.
Since then, however, Mr Trump’s foreign policy has tacked towards a more conventional US position as he appointed Putin critics to his administration.
The criticism of Mr Putin escalated last week as images circulated from the sarin attack on the Syrian rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun.
White House officials accused Russia of a cover-up. They released a four-page dossier showing that Syrian Su-22 fighter-bomber planes were involved in dropping sarin gas and that military personnel linked to the country’s chemical weapons programme were spotted at the airfield where they took off.
“It’s clear that the Russians are trying to cover up what happened there,” one White House official said.
Mr Trump also made clear his feelings in a TV interview. “Frankly, Putin is backing a person that’s truly an evil person,” he said. “I think it’s very bad for Russia. I think it’s very bad for mankind.”
Mr Putin responded in kind. He said the US-Russia relationship had only deteriorated since Mr Trump took office.
“The level of trust at the working level, especially at the military level, has not become better but most likely has degraded,” he said.
Before yesterday’s UN vote, Matthew Rycroft, the UK’s permanent representative, called on Russia not to use its veto but to help bring about a ceasefire in Syria.
“In doing so, Russia can create the space needed for a renewed push on the political process; one that leads to that political transition to a government that represents all Syrians,” he said.
foreign.desk@thenational.ae