you have listened to sergey lavrov many times. is the kremlin feeling under siege in the light of the attacks in syria or is that not what you heard from the press conference? definitely, the kremlin is under pressure because of the chemical attacks and what has been mentioned by washington. but vladimir putin never steps back under pressure, never surrenders. what they often do is issue counter offe nce. what they often do is issue counter offence. they always come with counter arguments and accusations and that is what mr putin did. what was interesting for me was the contrast between statements made by putin and his harsh language accusing washington and statements made by the russian foreign ministry. sergey lavrov was quite soft saying there were quite a lot of things called common ground that can repairthe of things called common ground that can repair the relationship and it seems that the kremlin is playing the game of good and bad policeman trying to attract washington for further cooperation because definitely there are

these were harsh words from sergei lavrov to start off the meeting. look, you guys have not filled your state department post. we don't even know who to call to get any kind of indication about what your policy is. he reiterated saying, look, we do want frank discussions. he said the visit was timely. for his part rex tillerson said, yes, frank discussions are what we need. he wanted to come to some agreement on what the differences are and begin to work on them piece by piece. it was interesting, definitely sergei lavrov wanting to start off with his grievances right off the bat putting them on the record as the press was in the room before the meeting started. boris, right now the kremlin spokesperson is on the record. if he doesn't meet with him it will be the first time that a russian leader does not meet with a secretary of state's visit into russia. >> paula, it would also certainly be a surprise because the two have had a very fruitful relationship before. of course, tillerson as the ceo of exxonmobile. reporting from moscow, thank you. >>> whi

>>> secretary of state elect tillerson moments away from the high stakes meeting with sergey lavrov. this comes a at a critical time as they accuse russia of a cover up of syria's use of chemical weapons. >> plus the trump administration doing something it does not often do, issuing a rare apology. after white house press secretary sean spicer made shocking comparisons between adolf hitler and bashar al-assad. not a good look for sean spicer or the white house. we'll get to that and more in a second. first thank you for joining us on early start. >> eye christine romans. it is 4:00 a.m. in the east, 11:00 a.m. in moscow where secretary of state rex tillerson and russian foreign minister is getting underway. it comes as u.s. officials are accusing russia of trying to cover up syrian leader bashar al-assad's use of chemical weapons against his own people. warns of backing assad in this new interview. >> frankly, putin is backing a person that's truly an evil person, and i think it's very bad for russia. i think it's very bad for man kind. it's very bad for this world. but when you drop

certainly as we have seen prior to the meeting between rex tillerson and sergei lavrov, sergei lavrov started quickly in terms of restating the russian view that the us strikes were illegal and they do not want to see a repetition of that. rex tillerson has got to be more forceful in public in reinforcing the united states points of view. that has not been his experience in a first couple of months in thejob, he's experience in a first couple of months in the job, he's tried to ta ke months in the job, he's tried to take a lower key approach to being secretary of state and now this is the moment wearer as sergei lavrov bushes, rex tillerson is going to have to aggressively pushed back. thank you very much. —— the moment where as sergei lavrov pushes. the health secretaryjeremy hunt has ordered a review at an nhs trust, after concerns were raised over a cluster of baby deaths. the bbc has learned there have been at least 7 avoidable deaths over 20 months within the shrewsbury and telford hospital trust in shropshire. five of the deaths were contributed to by the same problem — a

today tillerson spoke on the phone with russia's foreign minister sergey lavrov. in addition to discussing the air strikes, lavrov emphasized russia's view that attacking a country like syria whose government is fighting against terrorism plays into the hands of extremists creating more threats in the region and around the world. nbc's bill neally joins us from moscow with the latest. bill. >> reporter: good afternoon, richard. there's no question this visit, the first by any senior trump cabinet official to moscow will be significant and will be a challenge for rex tillerson. he is known here, he was even honored at one point by vladimir putin. but the russians will want to signal their opposition to u.s. missile strikes. he is due to meet russia's foreign minister sergey lavrov, the question is will president putin personally signal his displeasure by refusing to meet rex tillerson? and for mr. tillerson himself, he treads a very fine line. he wants to be tough in showing exactly why america launched those missiles. but he also wants to accomplish the central pl

some tough talk there from sergey lavrov. rex tillerson replying saying he also wanted to be frank, we need to identify, he said, areas of sharp difference and common interest, even when our tactical approaches might be different. i think that is critical. rex tillerson making a distinction between tactics and strategy. he's not going to go in and bang the table and say to the russians you've got to give up your support for president assad. he will say tactically i understand why you're doing this, alying yourself with assad, who uses chemical weapons with hezbollah, with iran, but strategically that's not great for you and the world. do you want globally to be seen as someone who allies yourself with those guys? he's also, i think, going to try to use a wedge on the russians. the russians have said it is not unconditional that we continue to support assad. so what are the conditions under which in the years ahead you might be prepared to give up on president assad? because as i said, the russians will not come out of this me

a meeting with russian foreign minister sergey lavrov. will there be another step in russian relations? vonnie: imf managing director christine lagarde discusses the biggest risks to the global economy. why she is still worried about the elections and the euro. and one of president trump's most popular tainlking has been railing against trade deals like tpp and nafta. is trump having any visible impact on trade policy? we will see with the director general of the world trade organization. mark: we will have a look at european equities and trading right now. 30 minutes until the end of the session. check it out. gmm go, stocks are holding on today. geopolitical concerns, have held back u.s. stocks more than european stocks. european stocks back today, gains in greece. today, two days since the stoxx 600 has been unchanged. yields rising in the periphery. they are falling in the core. that is obviously something we are keeping an eye on. it is a busy corporate day today. first quarter profits almost doubling, rising demand for the mercedes-

>> reporter: look, we'll take sergey lavrov at his word and that he's puzzled by mixed messages. he's also one of the most accomplished diplomats many the world. and knows exactly what their end is. the question for the united states is, what is the actual policy with russia? because this, to be frank, is over the russia chemical attack. and the real issue is that it is over the entire relationship between the united states and its western allies and russia itself. so if you look at what former cia acting director mike morrell wrote in "the new york times," this requires, yes, the visit of secretary state tillerson to moscow. yes, of course, he was going to get a meeting with president putin who held out of place for him in his schedule. and finally said, yes, we'll do it. and yes, there will be a press conference. but the president himself, president trump, is being advised by mike morrell and others, to actually make an address to the american people, spell out clearly what is in the u.s. national interest, what the u.s. will actually call, you know, what it will accept and whe

i think sergey lavrov wa nted were fairly strong. i think sergey lavrov wanted to make clear that russia is this all sorts of ambiguities and contradictions coming from america and it wants america to make its position clear. of course, rex tillerson have come here with one clear demand. he had been calling on russia to top in support of bashar al—assad but we have heard from the kremlin, mr putin himself and the foreign minister that that is not going to happen. russia has invested a huge amount in supporting bashar al—assad in syria and it has made the point again today that that‘s because it sees him as a bulwark against terrorism. it believes that its fighting international terrorism alongside president assad in syria and we heard from the kremlin today that it would be absurd to stop that support. i think it‘s going to be a very testy round of talks. we still don‘t know whether rex tillerson will meet president putin, that might take place later today, but i think the atmosphere will be very different now between those

on the one hand i thought that sergey lavrov offered a little something. russia was willing to support an investigation. on the other hand, you saw russia rejected a resolution. tim: the russian stance has always been, there is no of this, we don't believe it, show us your evidence. why didn't tillerson go in with evidence? mr. crowley: you had russian officials on that base. withis a replay of 2013 russia cooperating with the united states russia never , acknowledged syria's response -- responsibility for that attack and i'm not surprised , they refused again to do so today. what about other issues raised? north korea, for example. what did we learn about that and other aspects affecting both these countries? mr. crowley: i think both foreign ministers reviewed the scope of the agenda in relations between the united states and russia, and certainly north korea is among them. again, lavrov indicated a potential willingness to renew arms control negotiations. that is one area where there is a clear, common interest. the reality behind this meeting remains,

we expect to hear from him and sergey lavrov momentarily, but relations between the russians and trump administration seem anything but warm right now. are you surprised, given some of these allegations, some of the whispers that the trump campaign was colluding with russian agents? >> first car me he is right, we need to get the facts before we reach to conclusions. i am a democrat, and let me be honest, president obama dropped the ball in syria, he has acknowledged it was with his worst mistake, red lines were crossed, and as a democrat, i praised donald trump as our president for having done what he did when the syrians potentially with russian knowledge used the sarin gas on the syrian people. i am pleased that rex tillerson is they are and is going to talk about this, and i'm proud of our president as an american first, democrat second, for having stood up for what the democratic president barack obama should have done when the redline was last crossed during his term. >> jon: you spent a long time advising ronald reagan. he obviously had plenty of words for mikhail gorbachev and

with sergey lavrov and the russian president as well? carsten: uncertainty, that is the only thing we can point to. at this point. it gives us an indication of what is ahead on the global scale if you look at trade relations. global trade talks. the role of the wto. it gives your idea of the fact that it is difficult to say where the u.s. is heading. and without that, there is obviously uncertainty. francine: thank you so much. be stayingkel will with us and we will talk more about french politics. coming up on "bloomberg surveillance," a conversation with christine lagarde. we are live from brussels. it will be after a speech where she will layout the priority for the imf on how to make the world more inclusive. look for that at 6:30 a.m. in new york this is bloomberg. ♪ taylor: this is "bloomberg surveillance." let's get the bloomberg business flash. more problems for jes staley. hasu.s. justice department joined british regulators in investigating him for repeatedly trying to root out it was a blow or. the barclays board has reprima

sergey lavrov dominated the mic. tillerson was answering much more directly, much more short answers. sergey lavrov giving the longer discourse. pimm: one of the topics that came up during the news conference was north korea. is there any chance that the russians and americans will work together to defeat the nuclear situation in north korea? this is an says important point, the u.s. and russia agreeing to the denuclearization of north korea. russia is not as big of a player on the north korean issue as the u.s. and china. that is where the agreement is going to have to happen. that may be a place where the u.s. and russia can build some comedy and goodwill. in terms of actual progress there, that will have to go through china. pimm: thank you very much. pettypieceo shannon in washington. coming up later this afternoon, we will be hearing from president donald trump. we will get his thoughts on rex tillerson's meeting with vladimir putin. he will be holding a news conference with the un security council. we will brin

i thought it was a very aggressive offensive by sergei lavrov without much push back by tillerson. tillerson stated his positions, but he sure wasn't in the mood for an agreement with lavrov. >> melissa: do you think he should have hit back harder? >> well, look, it's not my job to say what the secretary of state should do. i just think it was interesting to note the difference between the two. lavrov went on very aggressively stating the u.s. position and several cases making strong charges about the u.s. and tillerson did not respond in kind. >> melissa: it's interesting to note as well that he said along those lines that you were just mentioning that last time around when secretary kerry was there, that he seemed to indicate it was more important to fight back against isis than to depose assad. and if you think back to when secretary kerry went in 2013, he was kept waiting for, what was it, three hours before he could see president putin? that was another one where they really sort of were very aggressive, as they're sitting there trying to have talks. where do you think it goes

thank you very much. >>> the russian foreign minister sergey lavrov and secretary tillerson wrapping up their joint statements and news conference underscoring the very, very serious differences between those two countries. tillerson saying the u.s./russian relationship is at a low point, his words, at a low point. he adds there is a low level of trust between our two countries. he says this kind of situation should not continue given the fact these are the two major nuclear powers in the world. the u.s. cannot have this kind of relationship. lots to assess. many issues came up. the differences very, very serious. i want to first bring in our chief international correspondent christ yiane amanpour. >> that's right, wolf. it was a far-reaching press conference. but tillerson started talking about the distrust and low point in our relations. the good news, if you want to look at it like that, lavrov confirmed that president putin said that they would re-establish their deconfliction which allows operations in and over the skies of syria without running into each other deliberately, pro

his foreign ministeter, sergei lavrov, compared the strike to the u.s. invasion of iraq in 2003, saying washington had no evidence to approve the regime behindnd the chemical attackck n tuesday. act ofourse it is an aggresession under a comompletey made a preretext. it remininds us that the situatn in 2003 when the u.s.s. and gret written and some of their allies broke into iraq without the agreement of the un security council. reporter: the syrian government called the u.s. missile strike foolish and irresponsible behavior. the syrian president bashar al-assad was powerful military -- even though washington said an informed moscow of the stririkeo avoid any y russian casualties, russia still called the move in violation of a safe airspace deal. >> the channels of technical communication will remain open. >> russia's military will help reinforce defenses. anchor: for some analysis we can speak to foreign-policy expert joining us here. what was your reaction? guest: i was amazed. it was quite a shift in the american foreign policy. at least in the trump f

material on was only supposed to meet with his russian counterpart sergei lavrov who was knot none too pleased about the syrian airstrikes. vladimir putin gave an interview on russian television saying one could say that the level of trust on a working level, especially on a military level has not improved, but has rather deteriorated. we just got out of a briefing with a white house official who did not make it seem there would be a meting face to face between president trump and vladimir putin anytime soon. charles: tammy, let me start with you. this whole thing weren't last 24 hours was a big drama. initially putin wasn't going to meet with miller on. it obviously was intense. they go back a long ways. rex tillerson doing a lot of business in that country. you had to know it was a very fringe discussion. and then we saw a very frank press conference. tammy: tillerson knew putin well. now we are seeing how that works and why that works. tillerson has a counterpart who is familiar with him. that you can't really play a game. trump on the other hand is a man who is clearly keeping peop

secretary of state rex tillerson and his counterpart, sergey lavrov. we will bring you those remarks live as soon as they begin. this is bloomberg. ♪ i've spent my life planting a size-six, non-slip shoe into that door. on this side, i want my customers to relax and enjoy themselves. but these days it's phones before forks. they want wifi out here. but behind that door, i need a private connection for my business. wifi pro from comcast business. public wifi for your customers. private wifi for your business. strong and secure. good for a door. and a network. comcast business. built for security. built for business. ways wins. especially in my business. with slow internet from the phone company, you can't keep up. you're stuck, watching spinning wheels and progress bars until someone else scoops your story. switch to comcast business. with high-speed internet up to 10 gigabits per second. you wouldn't pick a slow race car. then why settle for slow internet? comcast business. built for speed. built for business. pimm: a live shot of the white house. we

lavrov to hold a news c0 nfe re nce minister sergei lavrov to hold a news conference in moscow after their talks on syria. we will bring that to you when we get a life. that is the room where they will be speaking. and the press conference should've taken place quite some time ago but was delayed because of an impromptu meeting between vladimir putin and rex tillerson. there was no scheduled meeting between the us secretary of state and russian leader but that was changed during rex tillerson‘s trip to russia. and the talks your shoe we re to russia. and the talks your shoe were pretty tense. that you assume. given the fact that america launched the attack on that air in syria last week. so the journalists and press waiting for the press conference in the next few minutes. hello and welcome to sportsday. i'm hugh ferris. the headlines — another leap into the unknown for leicester... the next chapter of their extraordinary story takes them to madrid. and a champions league quarter final with atletico. double formula one world champion fernando alonso will miss the monaco grand pri

that is the latest on those talks between rex tillerson and sergei lavrov in moscow. the headlines on bbc newsroom live: prosecutors investigating the attack on the borussia dortmund football team say they're looking into a possible islamist terror motive. talks take place in moscow between the united states and russia — following last weeks suspected chemical attack in syria. and the daily mail says sorry to melania trump — the president's wife accepts damages and an apology from the newspaper over allegations about her work as a model. and in sport — it's the biggest day in leicester city's history. they play atletico madrid in theirfirst ever champions league quarter—final. they'll be without their captain wes morgan though, he's travelled to madrid but isn't fit enough to start. johanna konta will lead great britain's fed cup team for next week's world group ii qualifier against romania. the world number seven will be joined by heather watson, laura robson, jocelyn rae and katie swan. and the city of liverpool want to host the 2026 commonwealth games, as w

mr tillerson will meet his counterpart sergey lavrov. here is the secretary of state speaking before he got on the flight. the secretary of state speaking before he got on the flightlj the secretary of state speaking before he got on the flight. i hope that what the russian government concludes is that they have aligned themselves with an unreliable partner in president assad. they have signed, the chemical weapons themselves, the russian government assigned that accord. now assad has made the russians look not so good. the meetings in moscow. as rex tillerson is making clear, the focus will be what happened in a syrian town. we've talked about this many times in the last week. at least 89 people were killed in that chemical attack, which has been widely reported. the west blames the syrian government for that attack. here's an update on the us defense secretary, coming from reuters, who has said, there is no doubt the syrian government is responsible for that gas attack. the syrian government flatly denies this. here is vladimir putin t

he met his russian counterpart, sergei lavrov. then behind closed doors in the kremlin, president putin. there was a lot to talk about, including this. last week, america launched cruise missiles, targeting a syrian air base. an act of aggression, said russia, against moscow's ally. washington claimed it was an appropriate response to the recent chemical weapons attack in the syrian town of khan sheikhoun. today, america and russia publicly disagreed about who was behind it. the facts that we have are conclusive, that the recent chemical weapons attack carried out in syria was planned and it was directed and executed by syrian regime forces. translation: we saw no evidence of this and from tv pictures and eyewitnesses who were at the base when the planes took off, it's clear there were no signs of any chemical substances present there. there was disagreement too over president assad. moscow appears unwilling to do what america would like it to, stop supporting him. today, donald trump called president assad "truly evil" and critic

he's due to meet the russian foreign minister sergey lavrov. will president putin signal his displeasure at the united states by refusing to meet rex tillerson. he needs to tread a fine line. he wants to be tough od tell the russians exactly why the u.s. launched those missiles on that air base. but he also wants to accomplish one of the key aims of donald trump's foreign policy which is better relations with russia, and that has to start with this, his first visit here. he's already been pretty tough with the russians. so there could be a frosty reception. a couple of days ago, he said russia was either compliceit in syria's chemical weapons program or incompetent because it didn't know that syria had chemical weapons at that base. tough words from him. he will come here from the g7 gathering in italy. and he will want to bring here a united message from the west. interestingly today, the british foreign secretary boris johnson who was due to come here at the beginning of next week has canceled that visit saying that he wants a clear and coord

sergei lavrov called it illegal. that the united states launched missiles into syria to the base where the attack was allegedly carried out from. it's hard to see where the two sides come together. it's early days relationship. whether those sides can look for positive cooperation and move forward , positive cooperation and move forward, it's difficult to see. is president putin only forced to care about what the us says because of those missile strikes?” about what the us says because of those missile strikes? i think the president putin domestically feels pretty stronger at the moment. i don't think that missile strike has changed much there. it's acted in a way, on the contrary, it has allowed president putin once again to return to the position of showing russia has an external enemy, a country whose interests don't coincide with russia's and to present russia as the victim in this. russia will argue it has been unfairly accused of actions in syria. russia will use this, to a domestic audience at least, to prop

whoa reasons to be cheerful, number one, one of the first thing that sergei lavrov said after meeting with mr tillerson is that they are going to re—establish the protocols which mean that they will warn each other over the skies of syria is a russian jet is there and an american jet is there. and they will have those safety procedures in place will stop they scrap those open to this meeting today after the bombing of the airbase last week. so, they are co—operating at the shoppers and that this debate. the people with the actual bombs are now talking to each again. but last week they said, we are going to bomb that in the ministry move your claims, that is how close this age. if one of them had gone wrong and the russian had been killed, we dread to think, they are posturing, but there is a back channel the roof racks to lament and we should be grateful for that. let's go onto the metro, russia pointed the finger at britain. this is more of the same, i think bush is a night, i saw this earlier run —— russia is annoyed. perhaps public posturing they have to be seen to be jabbi

we're awaiting the high stakes news conference with sergei lavrov. meantime in an exclusive interview with maria bartiromo on the fox business network this morning, president trump saying the carnage should never have gotten as bad as it has, and blaming his predecessor for not doing anything to stop it. >> what i did should have been done by the obama administration a long time before i did it, and you would had a much better -- i think syria would be better off than it has been. >> obama didn't push for -- >> he didn't do it. they had a big attack after he drew the red line in the sand. they had a big attack. everybody waited, what's going on, and nothing happened. even the obama people admitted he was wrong for not doing it. >> sandra: what do you make of that? would syria be in a better position, be better off today had the former president, obama, acted different? >> geraldo: i think that president trump is exactly right, that the originally sin in syria is barack obama's sin. it's just that i date the president -- potus 44, barack obama's, prob

tillerson right now in the air on his way to moscow for this high-stakes meeting with sergey lavrov. a short time ago he ripped russia and its steadfast support to have syria, even after last week's chemical attack on civilians. >> he condemned russia for breaking its promise to the world that would eliminate chemical weapons years ago. >> -- demonstrate that russia has failed in its responsibility to deliver on its 2013 commitment. it is unclear whether russia failed to take this obligation seriously or russia has been incompetent, but this distinction doesn't much matter to the dead. we can't let this happen again. >> the distinction doesn't much matter from the dead. those words coming from the secretary of state moments ago. and in breaking news, vladimir putin speaking. first, let's go to italy. cnn's nic robertson is there. you herd him a short time ago with those provocative words, nic? >> reporter: he's had a very strong support here from the g-7, also from the gulf allieses, turkey, saudi arabia, jordan, qatar, the emirates, all here, as well, that mandate is to speak to the

as we set the table, we're waiting to hear from rex tillerson and sergey lavrov. no word on what was discussed in the meeting, but we know the conversations throughout the day in moscow have been tense. we'll take you live when the press conference starts. it's hard to overstate this. president trump says his russian counterpart is propping up a, quote, animal in syria. and he says the president needs to make better choices. and the ambassador to the united nations says she knew syria planned to use chemical weapons. >> i think they are nervous. i think they very much feel as if they have been weakened by assad's actions and their cover-up. they realize that the international community didn't buy it and is not buying it. and they now have to figure out how to save face. >> senator haley says save face, but president pru tin is criticizing the united states and nato warning against further strikes in syria. and the foreign minister work in a dig at the trump administration's personnel troubles. >> translator: this is particularly important at a time when as far as

sergey foreign minister lavrov accused u.s. of carrying out an unlawful attack against syrian forces, referring to the u.s. attack on an airbase last week in retaliation for chemical weapons being used on syrian civilians. tillerson conceded that the two sides have large differences but that talks could bring them closer together. white house press secretary sean spicer has apologized after yesterday claiming that hitler didn't use chemical weapons. mr. spicer: i would ask for folks' forgiveness to understand that i should not have tried to make a comparison. there is no comparing atrocities. and it is a very solemn time for so many folks, that this is part of that. that is obviously a very difficult thing personally to deal with because you know a lot of people who don't know you wonder why you would do that. spicer was ridiculed for drawing a comparison between the not see leader and syria -- nazi leader and bashar al-assad, failing to knowledge the systematic killing of jews with poison gas. retractedil" has the story about

we know he will meet with sergey lavrov. christine, look, rex tillerson knows this country being the ceo of lavrov. the trump administration will be able to cut to what his demands are if he speaks directly to rex tillerson, a man he knows. i don't believe that rex tillerson will be coming here with any sticks right now. he wants to see how you nudge russia along to continue in the help against isis but also get assad out of power, even if that means what remains in place is a regime, a government that's still friendly, pro russia. >> it will be interesting to see how he uses business ac krchlt krchcaccumen in this arena. >> everybody is talking about this. >>> everybody has that nightmare airport story, but few end up like this one. watch this video. unidentified and bloodied united airlines passenger in chicago sunday night gets yanked out of his seat. dragged down the aisle of the plane by chicago police. here is the story. united overbook this had flight to louisville, kentucky, and asked passengers to surrender their se

rex tillerson in the same room as sergey lavrov. it may bea same room as sergey lavrov. it may be a precursor to some kind of summit between president trump vladimir putin later in the year, who knows. rex tillerson did get the chance to talk to vladimir putin for a couple of hours today. that was in doubt so it'll be seen as a positive. they are still poles apart the key issues. they can't agree, won't agree on whether those chemical strikes were carried out by the syrian regime. russia has called america's retaliation, those tomahawks, an illegal act. they don't agree on accusations of russian involvement in the american election, in terms of cybercrime. there is a whole range of issues where they are just not even near one another. but what they've done todayis one another. but what they've done today is they've agreed, and it sounds like a small step, and it is a small step, to set up a working group, some lower—level diplomatic contact group, some lower—level diplomatic co nta ct to group, some lower—level diplomatic contact to try and smooth out and perhaps e

of a your extensive meeting with both president putin and sergey lavrov, do you know which it is and what concrete can be done to rebuild that lack of trust, and minister lavrov, if i can indulge you to answer in english, if you would, sir. president trump has called bashar al assad an animal. this is the leader your government continues to back. can you tell us how long russia will be willing to risk the lives of its soldiers and spend its money to protect him? >> with respect to russia's complicity or knowledge of the chemical weapons attack, we have no firm information to indicate that there was any involvement by russian, russian forces, in to this attack. what we do know and we have very firm and high confidence in our conclusions, that the attack was planned, carried out by the regime forces at the direction of bashar al assad. [ speaking in foreign language ] >> translator: i can only say once again that just as in the case with the so-called russian hackers and the chemical incidents in syria we would very much like to get some concrete evidence. not just words. so far we hav

you'll recall secretary john kerry had a remarkable relationship with sergey lavrov. that and $5 got them each a cup of coffee. doesn't seem to achieve anything when it comes to russia's expansionist tendencies and its tendencies to protect its interests around the world. >> well, in order to move the russians, you have to make it clear to them it is in their interest to help a transition. that's the challenge. but their continued presence in syria, the continued violence, the instability, the international outrage, at some point, i think, i hope, that they're going to get the message that this is not something that can be tolerated indefinitely. and they will begin to, i hope, move toward some type of constructive relationship. but, again, the situation is probably the most complex one in the world, in terms of different factions between the interests ssia, between the intests in the iranians, also on the grou there. at this juncture though, one of the things is we don't seem ourselves, the united states, to have a plan or a strategy. the administration has been goin

the first word was from sergei lavrov saying, this has been a long day. all they agreed on, i think, was that they didn't agree on very much and that their relations were at a terribly low state. and on that, mr. lavrov said the current situation with the u.s. is far from easy. we need to deal with the irritants in our relationship. and rex tillerson said the current state is at a low point, which is interesting. that would suggest that it's even lower perhaps than it was under barack obama. we can't let this continue. we need to put an end to this steady degradation. then they talked about ways that they would do that. but apart from ukraine, which they said they touched on a little, and the situation in the korean peninsula which they agreed was bad, really a lot of the discussion was not really based on syria but based on what happens next with president assad. mr. tillerson sdhey discussed assad at length. he said assad should leave power in an orderly way. the reign of the assad family is coming to an end and russia can help him realize this reality.

ry lavrov began a f minute lecture with rex tillerson sitting a cross the table and sergey lavrov read off a list of complaints basically about the u.s. position, but afterwards, we -- so we had three hours of talks between them, then rex tillerson met esident putin forwo hours and then we've had that news conference. since the news conference, brian, in the last hour, a couple other areas of russia vetoed a resolution that would have condemned the chemical weapons attacks and disagreeing on what was agreed at the meeting, so russia said there was an international investigation agreed on the chemical weapons attack. mr. tillerson's staff has said nothing was agreed. there was no agreement. you know, the two men -- i think the basic thing that they agreed on was the relations between the u.s. and russia were at a low point. and that it was something that had to be changed. rex tillerson said there is a low level of trust, we need to put an end to this steady degradation and mr. lavrov saying we need to deal with the irritants in our relationship. clearly, a lot of the talk was about syr

rex tillerson replied to that five-minute speech, if you like, by sergey lavrov saying he, too, would be frank saying we want to identify areas of sharp difference and of common interest even when our tactical approaches might be different. i think that word tactics is very important. rex tillerson isn't going in demanding. there's no ultimatum that russia give up assad. he's saying tactically you've got him in syria's war. strategically is that wise to be allying yourself with a guy who uses chemical weapons. we'll get a readout on the meeting much later on. >> if we only knew what was being said during that lunch. bill neely, thank you. >>> now to the backlash that continues against white house press secretary sean spicer this morning after he made controversial comments during his daily press briefing, comparing syrian president bashar al assad to adolf hitler. >> we didn't use chemical weapons in world war ii. you had someone as despicable as hit her who didn't even sink to using chemical weapons. >> it was that remark that garnered immediate repudiation with many noting hitler ga

we're awaiting a joint news conference with rex tillerson and his russian counter part, sergey lavrov. good morning. i'm jon scott. >> i'm jenna lee. it's not just about what they say but body language here as well. >> jon: going to be fascinating. >> jenna: the top two diplomats could step to the podium any minute now. this comes after a high week of tension over syria. russia accusing the u.s. of an unlawful missile strike and the u.s.a. ledging that russia trying to cover up. all whi-- let's get the latest m kevin corke. >> this relationship has seen more downs than ups lately, although you've heard many leaders over the past several years talking about the importance of trying to re-establish a relationship. we're talking about two countries that have frankly had their governments accuse the other of disruptive behavior and that is making things complicated as you point out as the secretary of state makes his way to moscow. the two diplomats meeting amid rising tensions. each man says his side is committed to working towards a mutual understanding. >> our meetings today come at an

but the russian foreign minister sergei lavrov didn't want to wait. he got right into it. criticizing u.s. airstrikes on syria, calming them a violation of international law and saying they must stop. he also took the opportunity to slam the state department, itself, for not having enough people. there are all of these high level positions still opened. he said

now we see that rex tillerson is coming to moscow to speak to sergei lavrov, and that will be, i'm pretty sure, a very stony meeting. it is interesting you use the words that assad has let down his russian allies — is that how that will be seen, some form of betrayal? i think that when the syrians allegedly launched this attack, they didn't consult moscow. i suppose it was a way of testing the washington after rex tillerson's words that basher al—assad is safe. —— basha al—assad. there is an accusation that assad recreated chemical weapons after an agreement to get rid of them. it is ha rd to agreement to get rid of them. it is hard to say which version of the story is worse for moscow. will it change anything in the russian support for syria ? change anything in the russian support for syria? no, it won't. russia is now set in its ways for mr putin bailing out assad. it is a way of showing to the world that moscow is the place where regime change stops. this was his policies for four years, and stops. this was his policies for fouryears, andi stops. this was his policies for fo

tillerson will meet with russian foreign minister sergey lavrov. let's go live to international diplomatic editor nic robertson in italy at the site of those meetings. a recipient of the russian order of friendship is heading to the kremlin with a not so friendly message. >> reporter: that's right. and talks are still going on here at the g7 meeting, they're overrunning we believe secretary tillerson is having a bilateral meeting with the foreign minister and that will be the last meeting here and he will brief the press before he takes off for moscow. but the con sensus that seems t be emerging is that it's not only the g7 foreign ministers, but also brought in the foreign ministers this morning from saudi arabia, cuter, jordan, turkey, united emirates. so more players at the table. butt the consensus is that ther is a window in which the supporters and allies of the united states believe president putin needs to be allowed to back away from police support of president assad in syria, that this window is not clear how long this window should be, b

sergey lavrov hosted a meeting in moscow with his syrian and iranian counterparts. the three, expectedly, condemned the u.s. air strikes president trump ordered in response to the deadly chemical attack. lavrov said, quote, this is an act of aggression. a blatant violation of the principles of international law and the u.n. charter. this comes after syrian president bashar al assad denied responsibility for killing more than 100 people. here's what assad said in an exclusive government interview. >> there was no order to make any attack. we don't have any chemical weapons. we gave up our arsenal two years ago. even if we had them, we wouldn't use them. we have never used our chemical arsenal in our history. >> nbc's lucy joins me live from moscow. one can't be too surprised that syrians, iranians and the russians can't like the strike. what else did the foreign minister say there? >> that's right, ali. no surprises here. this was a show of force by the three foreign ministers and a show of unity. a day after secretary of state tillerson departed russia, after receiv

rex tillerson and his russian counterpart sergey lavrov, both men meeting with vladimir putin today. let's hear what they have to say. translation: it's been a long day, we have had talks with the secretary of state of the united states rex tillerson and we have just had a long, more than two hours meeting, with president putin. talks have been substantial, frank, open. they embraced the entire range of questions that are crucial for bilateral relations as well as for oui’ bilateral relations as well as for our interaction in geopolitics and national affairs. we have fixed that the current state of our relations is not the calmest. we have significant problems. including those that have been left by the previous administration, obama administration. we are realists. we understand to overcome these barriers we need substantial efforts but we hope that there will be movement towards us from our american colleagues and resident putin today confirmed our consequent policy in these areas. we see effo rts policy in these areas. we see efforts to inhibit our policy, we see... look at it a

you mentioned putin saying relations are at or near a historic low and sergey lavrov meeting with rex tillerson sort of giving him a talking to about how this is going to go down as well as the fact that, you know, they weren't sure what u.s. policy was because of the confusion with tillerson versus nikki haley. so diplomacy is the highest form of politics in some way. every word matters. i think you're seeing that fact. lavrov, i think, wanted to point out the fact that the united states had used different words, tillerson, trump, nikki haley. i'm interested to know when you hear this tough talk out of russia. one thing that we know is donald trump believes very strongly in sort of being the tough guy, backing up what he says and with action. so i was in syria last week and throughout the campaign he said to say america isn't feared anymore. we need to be respected and feared at some level and these countries need to know they won't get a free pass when they say and do something. this is a test with a very large country, and someone of geopolitical importance that we can't sort of wr

sergey lavrov today again calling for an independent investigation into that attack. russia does not believe in the evidence presented so far by the u.s. that suggests the syrian government carried out that attack. russia has previously suggested it may have been the rebels, that in fact they could have even staged the attack, staged the victims. certainly not the message that we're hearing from the international community. but sergey lavrov this morning said that the current investigators, and i quote him, have been acting somewhat secretively. he didn't elaborate on what he meant by that but he said more transparency was necessary in order for this investigation to take place before syria and russia could get behind that. this comes on the heels of those tri-lateral talks in moscow on friday between mr. lavrov and his russian and iranian counterparts. the three countries speaking with one voice, a show of force, rejecting again the allegations that this was a chemical weapons attack pby the government and warning the united states against any further military action

sergey lavrov says moscow is ready to restore the syria air support. has vetoed a yuan resolution condemning the use of chemical weapons in syria. the draft -- a you and -- a u.

rex tillerson and sergei lavrov has clearly... doesn't appear to hold out very much promise for the air being cleared. on the one hand, yes, there is not that much that we can elaborate on. but there are important signs coming from the kremlin today. a spokesman said that later today, a meeting between rex tillerson and vladimir putin is possible. in previous days, he was denying that this meeting is in putin's schedule. this is an opportunity for washington's agenda to become clear. fascinatingly, rex tillerson is used to dealing with russia, but in a different role, in his previous life as a businessman. but that may help in terms of his relations in moscow right now, do you think? i think, yes. he met putin in person before and they know each other. he is a good business negotiator, and this may help. moscow is showing that it is interested in negotiations. despite the harsh language used by mr putin, clearly moscow is trying to calculate how cost—effective its support for president assad is at the moment. in terms of the mos

sergey lavrov is a skilled diplomat. rex tillerson has never held a diplomatic position before. how do you see the dynamic between these two men? it's crucial to the relationship between the russia and u.s. moving toward. >> i am sure he is being prepared for being lectured, maybe even being bullied, though lo lavrov can be the gent versusal your -- gentle versus the bully. tillerson is not a baby either. i don't think he's the kind of person who will take the bait if he does get bullied. he'll give a clear, steady message of why the russians need to make a choice. >> karen, on the campaign trail he said repeatedly he wanted to work with russia. we heard the press secretary clarify yesterday, the second part of the sentence was, if we can't, then oh well. how do you see what's been happening lately as affecting that. >> something else the president said on the campaign trail. he said the united states needed to be unpredictable. at very sensitive moments like this, that becomes a problem. when you hear people speaking in the white house, it becomes clear they don't have a good s

so tomorrow morning, secretary of state will meet with foreign minister sergey lavrov. there are questions as to whether he will get an invitation from russian president vladimir putin. senior state department officials say the secretary of state would meet with president putin if you were invited. the kremlin this morning saying that a meeting is not yet on the schedule. so we will wait and see. back to you. >> jon: the russians are masters of disinformation, but it is hard to see how that one will fly. rich edson in moscow, thank you. >> jenna: rising tension between the u.s. and russia may have an unintended consequence, at least according to some conservatives who say it disproves the democrats argument that the president isn't too close to russia. a piece in the "washington examiner" spells it out this way. "increasing tension with moscow over u.s. strikes in syria have complicated the democrats argument that president trump isn't too close to russia even has congressional committees continue to investigate russian interference in the presidential election and any

let's pick up and tack talk about the reception from sergey lavrov. what do you read into the information that we just had, a three hour including lunch. >> that's about right. i've been at the other end of mr. lavrov's tough talk. it's his way to deliver messages. i think that both president putin's comments and lavrov's comments about it being a loudish administration, all of this is really the posturing at the beginning of a negotiation in this relationship. i'm not sure what we'll see out of this round of meetings. and as bill said, it remains to be seen whether that putin meeting will happen. i think he's quite right mr. putin will take the measure of what's happened in the bilateral with lavrov and make a decision. >> when you hear that the russians believe that there is an even worse relationship now, a less of a level of trust under president donald trump, is this more tough talk or do you think there's something to that? >> i think they feel disappointed. all throughout the campaign we all saw then president to be donald trump talking about h