US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that the US-Russia relations was under considerable stress, but that the United States would continue to concentrate on areas of mutual interest such as defeating terrorism. “The relationship, as you know, on Russia continues to be under considerable stress. As I indicated in my first trip to Moscow and meetings at the Kremlin with President Putin following those meetings, the relationship was at a historic low since the end of the Cold War, and it could get worse. And the question, I think, of the events of the last week or so is: is it getting worse or can we maintain some level of stability in that relationship and continue to find ways to address areas of mutual interest and ways in which we can deal with our differences without those becoming open conflicts as well,” Tillerson said, while adding that Moscow and Washington “have explored in the early days one area of mutual interest, which is terrorism. And we’ve chosen the theater in Syria as a place in which we test our ability to work together. We share the common view of ISIS as a threat to both of our countries, and so we are committed to the defeat of ISIS, Daesh, other terrorist organizations. And then we are committed to the stability of Syria following the battle to defeat ISIS,” the American top diplomat said in a press briefing at the State Department in Washington.
Secretary Tillerson also took the opportunity to reiterate Russia’s backing of Syrian President Bashar Assad as “unacceptable” while emphasizing that under any final solution to the Syria conflict, Iran must disengage from the war-torn-country and return the Islamic Republic. Clearly, Russia has aligned itself early on in the conflict with the Syrian regime and Bashar al-Assad, which we find to be unacceptable. So we’re working with Russia through, how do we achieve the end state, which is a unified Syria, not divided, but a Syria that has the opportunity for the Syrian people to put in place a new constitution, have free and fair elections and select a new leadership. And it continues to be our view that the Assad regime has no role in the future governing of Syria. The sequencing of all of that we’re open to, as long as that’s what is achieved at the end. The second condition we have is that Iran’s military influence — the direct presence of Iranian military forces inside of Syria, they must leave and go home,” Tillerson concluded.
Secretary Tillerson is expected to meet with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov this weekend in Manila, where both top diplomats are expected to discuss their relations and the way forward in working together in the Middle East that would benefit regional stability.
