TOUGH TALK

Tillerson: ‘Real Failure’ on Syria Is Russia

Calls recent strikes a response to Assad’s chemical attack.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson declared that U.S. “military posture” in Syria has not changed as a result of the airstrikes that were carried out in response to a chemical weapons attack by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, and that the “real failure” when it comes to the chemical weapons ban agreed to in 2013 is Russia’s. “We are asking Russia to fulfill its commitment and we’re asking and calling on Bashar al-Assad to cease the use of these weapons. Other than that, there is no change to our military posture,” Tillerson said in an interview airing Sunday on ABC’s This Week, explaining that the U.S. strikes were deployed in direct response to the chemical weapons attack which killed dozens of civilians, including children. Reuters reported that Tillerson spoke by phone with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, on Saturday.