UPDATE - US warns Assad may not be long for Syria

ADDS BACKGROUND

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - The U.S. has begun to take steps to organize an international coalition to take action against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the U.S.'s top diplomat said Thursday.

"Those steps are underway," Secretary of State Rex Tillerson responded when asked if he and President Donald Trump would organize an alliance to depose Assad.

Tillerson said there was no doubt Assad is responsible for the chemical attack on Tuesday on the town of Khan Shaykhun in Idlib, which the Syrian opposition's health minister said killed at least 100 people.

“Assad’s role in the future is uncertain clearly and with acts that he has taken, it would seem that there would be no role for him to govern the Syrian people," Tillerson said, appearing to vacillate on the fate of the Syrian leader who has helmed the country since 2000.

Tillerson is currently in Florida ahead of Trump's first bilateral gathering with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

He further warned Russia, Assad's main benefactor, to "consider carefully their continued support for the Assad regime”. The U.S. secretary of state will visit Moscow on April 12.

Russia has maintained that the Syrian airstrike in question hit a rebel chemical weapons stockpile, resulting in collateral damage, a claim doubted by western powers.

President Donald Trump has long been a critic of regime change, and warned former President Barack Obama against toppling Assad in 2013 following a similar horrific attack on the outskirts of Damascus.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump said "something should happen" to Assad after the most recent attack that many have blamed on the Syrian leader, but declined to elaborate what that should be.

“What Assad did is terrible," Trump said. "What happened in Syria is truly one of the egregious crimes and it shouldn’t have happened. And it shouldn’t be allowed to happen.”

On Wednesday, Trump said the attack crossed "a lot of lines", calling it an "affront to humanity". He said it caused him to rethink his long-standing views on Syria and Assad, and he is reportedly weighing military action.

In an address to the the UN Security Council, U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley suggested Washington would take unilateral action if Russia failed to help the international community eradicate the use of chemical weapons.

"When the UN consistently fails in its duty to act collectively, there are times in the life of states when we are compelled to take our own action," Haley said.