Russian foreign minister scolds Tillerson over Syria during Moscow visit

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was met with a stern scolding by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov Wednesday, as the two leaders convened for a full day of meetings in Moscow.

Lavrov criticized the U.S. for airstrikes on the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, warned that similar action was unacceptable to Russia, and chided the Trump administration for an inconsistent foreign policy and vacant positions at the State Department.

“I will be frank that we have a lot of questions regarding very ambiguous as well as contradictory ideas on a whole plethora of bilateral and international agenda coming from Washington,” he said through a translator.

“We have seen just recent highly alarming actions, when there was the unlawful attack against Syria,” he added. “We believe it fundamentally important not to let these actions happen again in the future.”

But Lavrov nonetheless expressed a desire to work with the U.S., especially on counter-terrorism issues — something for which the Trump administration has also declared an interest.

 

Read More: Russian foreign minister scolds Tillerson over Syria during Moscow visit – ABC News