Lavrov: Moscow's calls for an "independent and thorough investigation" in both Idlib and Sha'irat incidents. "We have other affects available to us, and we are not trying to impose anything on anyone" but Moscow doesn't believe it is fair or just to place all blame on Damascus prior to an objective probe of the chemical attack. Lavrov expressed that a UN security council resolution would be counterproductive and may only legitimize accusations against Damascus.

Lavrov and Tillerson discussed the "special responsibility" Moscow and Washington bear for maintaining "strategic stability." This will include "business-like, pragmatic" discussions on arms reductions, Lavrov said. Business interests in both nations want to reverse the trend of negative relations between Moscow and Washington, he added.

Lavrov: "We are open to this dialogue..and not just dialogue, but [to] working together," in areas of mutual interest. "We understand each other better after today's talks."

Tillerson: "There's a low level of trust between our two countries. The world's two foremost nuclear powers cannot have this kind of relationship." He then stated Moscow and Washington should end tit-for-tat strategies which can provoke tensions. Moscow and Washington have agreed to create a working group dedicated toward solving low-level problems. "We both believe in a stable and unified Syria,"

Tillerson: "They have brought this on themselves" (regarding international pressure against Assad). "We think its important that Assad's departure is done in an orderly way. The final outcome in our view does not provide a role for Assad or the Assad family. We will not accept that, we don't believe the world will accept that,"

Lavrov: "Daesh is a much bigger threat than Assad's regime. If we change the regime, it is very possible we cannot defeat Daesh and that we will be defeated."

Lavrov said the US and Moscow are not "world's apart" on many issues, as one reporter had suggested. "We need to learn the lessons of the past, otherwise we cannot be successful in the present," he said.

Tillerson said cybertools have "emerged" to influence elections as well as interfere with the software systems relied on by weapons systems.

Lavrov: "I can only confirm that we are interested in having close cooperation on cybercrime. The Obama administration turned down..and did not respond" to a proposal from Moscow to work together on cybercrime.

Lavrov said that he had requested evidence that Russia interfered with the US elections, but that he has seen nothing resembling fact. Some parties want to "torpedo" US-Russia relations whether to achieve political goals or foreign policy gains. But there has not been anything resembling bulletproof evidence that Russia actively meddled in America's 2016 election.

Lavrov still thinks an accord can be reached: "We would welcome this kind of cooperation." With regards to the working groups, the group would respond to issues as they arise, especially "artificial" problems that may emerge.

"I have personally reviewed the intelligence, and there is no doubt the Syrian regime is responsible for the decision to attack and for the attack itself" on the town of Khan Sheikhun on April 4, killing 87 people, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said.

While some U.S. officials have said they believe Russia played a role, noting it had forces stationed at the same air base where Syrian planes allegedly launched the attack, Mattis said the United States does not have any proof of Russian involvement.

"It was very clear that the Assad regime planned it, orchestrated it, and executed it, and beyond that we can't say right now," he said.

Mattis warned that if Syria uses chemical weapons again, it will "pay a very, very stiff price."

But he insisted that the United States remains focused on its primary mission in Syria: defeating the Islamic State group.

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"The main objection to the resolution is that it apportioned blame prior to an objective outside investigation of the incident... The outcome of the vote was predestined, because we disagreed categorically with a document that was fundamentally misconceived," said Vladimir Safronkov, Russia's deputy envoy at the Security Council, who also accused other states and international organizations of making "no effort" to inspect the site of the alleged attack.

Accepting the resolution would also "legitimize" the April 7 air strike carried out by the US on the Shayrat airbase in northern Syria, from which Washington claims government planes carrying the deadly sarin nerve gas took off, Safronkov said.

Unlike the earlier drafts of the resolution on the alleged incident, the final document did not lay the blame for it on Damascus. It also referred to the incident as the "reported use of chemical weapons" rather than stating that such use did take place as a fact.

However, the draft leaned heavily on the Syrian government in terms of demands to submit to an investigation of the incident. It said inspectors chosen by the UN and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) must be given prompt and unrestricted access to "any and all sites" they choose, provided with flight plans and logs they request, and given the names of military officers "in command of any aircraft" they probe. Damascus would also have to "arrange meetings requested, including with generals or other officers, within no more than five days of the date on which such meeting is requested."

Appearing on Channel 4's The Last Leg to discuss the Syria crisis in September of 2013, Johnson, who was then mayor of London, claimed that "not even Hitler used chemical weapons, as far as I can remember," seemingly forgetting about the several million Jews, homosexuals, Romani people, dissidents, and people with disabilities that were gassed to death in extermination camps.

Mindful of the use of Zyklon B in the concentration camps, the host said: "There is an argument to say that he did use chemical weapons at some point."

Gaffe-prone Johnson backtracked, saying: "In the theatre of war, as far as I can remember, and I stand to be corrected on this, I don't believe that even the Nazis used chemical weapons."

"In light of recent statements made by White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, encourages him to visit the Yad Vashem website to learn about the Holocaust and its period in history," the museum said in a statement published on its website.

It expressed "deep concern" over "inaccurate and insensitive use of terms related to the Holocaust" in Spicer's comments, adding that such statements reveal his "profound lack of knowledge of events of the Second World War."

The Jerusalem-based center also stressed that the press secretary's comments actually play into the hands of those who are willing to "distort history."