Can Russia Abandon Assad? – Inside Story

US President Donald Trump's inauguration was expected to usher in a new era of close ties with Russia. The past week, however, shows that's not happening. Harsh words have been traded over the Syrian conflict. It started with the chemical attack in Idlib last week, blamed on the Russian-backed Assad regime, followed by the US strike on a Syrian airbase.

Rex Tillerson's visit to Moscow has done little to ease tensions. Tillerson met with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov to discuss the future of the Syrian President. The US wants Assad gone. But Russia wants to know what America's real intentions are. And what the West is planning for a Syria without Assad?

Presenter: Sohail Rahman. Guests: Alexander Nekrassov, Russian political analyst and former Kremlin adviser; Wa'el Alzayat, former senior Syria adviser to Samantha Power, the US Ambassador to the United Nations under President Obama; Ian Black, visiting senior fellow at the Middle East Centre at the London School of Economics.