The Trump administration’s finding that Syrian President Bashar Assad used chemical weapons is just as baseless as the Obama administration’s assessment of Russian interference in the 2016 election, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov argued Wednesday.
“Just as in the case of the so-called Russian hackers and the chemical incidents in Syria, we would very much like to get some concrete evidence, not just words,” Lavrov said during a joint press conference with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
Tillerson traveled to Moscow with the goal of repairing some aspects of Russia’s relationship with the United States, an effort complicated by the April 4 use of chemical weapons and President Trump’s retaliatory strike against the Assad regime. The new secretary of state toned down the biting language he used to blame Russia while traveling in Italy this week, but emphasized that the United States has “high confidence” Assad is responsible for the attack.
“We have very firm and high confidence in our conclusion that the attack was planned and carried out by the regime forces at the direction of Bashar al-Assad,” Tillerson said.
Lavrov countered that the United States is relying on “remote evidence” provided by civilian groups such as the White Helmets, which have been celebrated in the United States but accused of telling “barefaced lies” by the Russians. “They have been found to be guilty of fraud,” Lavrov said. “There should be an investigation into what has happened.”
