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US Secretary of State arrives in Moscow  

MOSCOW: United States Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has arrived in Moscow for crucial talks but without a game plan from key allies about how to deal with Russia’s backing for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

A meeting of G7 foreign ministers on Tuesday rejected a British plan to impose new sanctions on Syria and Russia in the wake of last week’s chemical attack that killed more than 80 people.

Britain had hoped the threat of sanctions would strengthen Tillerson’s hand in talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

But the G7 foreign ministers chose instead to wait for the outcome of an international investigation into the attack on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun last week, which prompted the US to launch a barrage of missiles on a Syrian airbase on Friday. Western nations blame the Assad regime for the attack.

Tillerson flew straight from the G7 meeting in Italy to Moscow, where he will become the first member of Trump’s cabinet to meet the Russian administration.

But the mood in Russia was bleak. “It is obvious that Russian-American relations are going through the most difficult period since the end of the Cold War,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.

Tillerson will hold talks with Foreign Minister Lavrov on Wednesday. Early suggestions that he might meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin were dismissed when the Kremlin confirmed nothing was scheduled.