Rex Tillerson arrives in Moscow and WILL meet with Putin amid war of words over Syria and Assad
Putin was planning on passing Tillerson off to his foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov
A Russian television station says that they will meet after all; neither the State Department nor the White House has confirmed this
Russia has ripped the US for its air assault in Syria and warned Donald Trump that he was 'one step from war' with the country after the attack
Tillerson hammered Russia right back on Tuesday, saying it had 'failed in its responsibility' to locate and destroy Assad's chemical weapons
Trump secretary of state said the US believes that Russia could be persuaded to switch sides now that it knows Assad is an 'unreliable partner'
Putin said Tuesday that Assad was framed for the gas attacks - and he has intel that more are coming
White House officials slapped down that claim and others it said are false
US officials say there's no consensus that Russia knew about the sarin gas attack before it happened while suggesting that it did
By Francesca Chambers, White House Correspondent For Dailymail.com
Published: 12:09 EDT, 11 April 2017 | Updated: 18:04 EDT, 11 April 2017
Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson after all during his stay in Moscow, a Russian television station has reported.
Putin's spokesman had said Monday that the foreign leader did not plan to see Rex Tillerson, the US secretary of state. Tillerson was to meet with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, instead.
But there appeared to be a volte-face by the Kremlin as a station close to Putin said there would be a meeting.
State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Tuesday that if an invitation comes, Tillerson will 'of course' accept, but it up to the Kremlin to make that offer.
The meeting - if it actually happens - is likely to be extremely tense.
Tillerson hammered Russia on Tuesday, saying in a statement that Russia had 'failed in its responsibility' to locate and destroy Bashar al-Assad's entire stockpile of chemical weapons.
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4402000/Rex-Tillerson-arrives-Moscow-meet-Putin.html#ixzz4dz2uLW4G
