From Reader George:

https://en.news-front.info/2017/05/13/us-offers-russia-deal-on-ukraine-but-the-price-is-syria/

Moscow, Russia. The middle east situation is anything but clear as Trump and Lavrov have recently met in a strange, overnight emergency meeting. Information leaking out shows the US is committed to Syrian regime change and has been since way back in the Obama Administration.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s meetings in Washington revealed an ongoing dispute between the two countries regarding the fate of Syria. The Trump Administration insists on “cutting off the head” of Syria’s regime and an estimated 20 known Assad associates, while Moscow warned from “the repetition of the Iraqi and Libyan models” in Syria, western diplomatic sources said.
The diplomatic sources said Trump’s administration now “has a clear position from Assad after intelligence apparatus in Washington, London and Paris received proofs that the Syrian regime was 100 percent responsible about the chemical attack in Khan Sheikhoun,” when its air forces attacked civilians in the countryside of Idlib.

Trump’s administration informed Lavrov during this week’s talks in Washington about three No’s: “No peace with Assad, no stability with Assad and no reconstruction with Assad,” the sources said.

They added, however, that Washington was lenient regarding “the method and the timing of Assad’s exit” from Syria and said Trump’s administration accepts those matters to be managed by Moscow, including a possibility that Russia hosts Assad in return of a US pledge that he would not be prosecuted by the International Criminal Court.

In return, Lavrov reiterated his country’s position, saying “the exit of Assad would lead to the collapse of the regime and would echo the Iraqi and Libyan disorder in Syria.”
The US side told lavrov that “around 20 officials from the Syrian regime are required to leave,” but accepted the presence of the Army and the security apparatus, the sources said, adding that Washington does not mind that a Alawite personality be tasked to rule the new regime.

Trump also informed Lavrov during their second round of talks that the US refuses to play a role in the Geneva and Astana talks in return of its insistence to see a “US-Russian deal on Syria that could be the start of bilateral relations between the two sides,” and that could develop to include an additional agreement on Ukraine.

The reports are considered highly credible and fit with satellite intelligence that shows a heavy concentration of US armor and vehicles massed in Jordan ready to invade Syria on short notice, as part of a “coalition response.” The imaginary gas attack to be used as the justification and a potential deal on Ukraine the carrot now dangling before the Russians.

https://youtu.be/NG3wkg-KuCQ