Tillerson Issues Tough Ultimatum to Putin
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson issued a ultimatum to Russian President Vladimir Putin over his support of Bashar al-Assad in Syria. He made the comments Tuesday to reporters after a meeting with diplomats in Italy.
Tillerson pressured the G-7 countries to join together against Assad’s regime, and demanded that Putin choose between his ally in Syria accused of war crimes and Hezbollah, or join his detractors, led by the United States. He also made it clear that the United States placed at least part of the blame on Russia for the chemical attack.
“Last week Bashar al-Assad’s regime killed even more of its own people using chemical weapons,” he explained. “Our missile strike in response to his repeated use of banned weapons was necessary as a matter of U.S. national security interests. We do not want the regime’s uncontrolled stockpile of chemical weapons to fall into the hands of ISIS, or other terrorist groups who could and want to attack the United States and our allies” . . .
“It is also clear that Russia has failed to uphold the agreements they had entered into under multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions,” Tillerson added. “These agreements stipulated Russia as the guarantor of a Syria free of chemical weapons, that they would also locate and destroy all such armaments in Syria. Stockpiles and continued use demonstrate that Russia has failed in its responsibility to deliver on its 2013 commitment. It is unclear whether Russia failed to take this obligation seriously, or Russia has been incompetent.” (Read more from “Tillerson Issues Tough Ultimatum to Putin” HERE) http://joemiller.us/2017/04/tillerson-issues-tough-ultimatum-putin/
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