Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned of U.S. retaliation against war criminals while visiting a memorial to Italian victims of the Nazis.
“[W]e re-dedicate ourselves to holding to account any and all who commit crimes against the innocents anywhere in the world,” Tillerson said Monday in Lucca, Italy. “This place will serve as an inspiration to us all.”
He made the comment as part of a wreath-laying ceremony at Sant’Anna di Stazzema, at the scene of a massacre perpetrated by the Waffen-SS in 1944. Coming just days after President Trump ordered U.S. strikes against Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime in response to a chemical gas attack, the statement had immediate significance as a warning to Assad and his chief supporter, Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Putin’s team is casting doubt on the idea that Assad was responsible for the chemical attack and vowing to defend his regime. “What America waged in an aggression on Syria is a crossing of red lines,” the Russian government said in a joint statement with Iran, Assad’s other key ally. “From now on we will respond with force to any aggressor or any breach of red lines from whoever it is and America knows our ability to respond well.”
That statement is an apparent response to U.S. threats to take further military action against Assad if he continues to use chemical weapons; it’s a clear rebuff of the Trump administration’s demand that the Russians force Assad, whose regime depends on their support, to honor ceasefire agreements and abide by a deal that was supposed to deprive him of all his chemical weapons stockpiles.
“The United States took a very measured step last night,” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley told the U.N. Security Council on Friday. “We are prepared to do more, but we hope that will not be necessary. It is time for all civilized nations to stop the horrors that are taking place in Syria and demand a political solution.”
