On his flight, the defense chief again took aim at Russia's support for Syrian President Bashar Assad.
He did warn the regime that President Trump has "full political maneuver room" to take whatever actions he deems necessary, according to Reuters.
"I'm not going to strictly define it. We have made it very clear that it would be very unwise to use gas" as a weapon, he added. "I don't know which it is - either they're incompetent or they're committing illegal acts, or both".
"In this case, the intelligence community is working diligently to verify what happened there", Pompeo said in an interview on CBS' "Face the Nation". "And I tried to forget that I ... knew what the last third was about - that you would actually see opportunities there to reduce the tensions between the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation countries, the Western countries, the nations that want to live by worldwide law, maintain sovereignty and territorial integrity of everyone, and the Russian Federation". You've seen the pictures as well. "Americans should rest assured that we have a very good understanding of the Russian program and how to make sure that Americans continue to be kept safe from threats from Vladimir Putin".
The fact that Assad may still have chemical weapons shows "either Russian Federation is incompetent or in cahoots with Assad", Mattis said. "There's an bad lot of reports about chlorine gas use or about symptoms that could be resulting from chlorine gas", Mattis said.
"They are Assad's partner and whether the airplane dropping the bomb is a Russian airplane or a Syrian airplane, I'd prefer not to say right now", he said.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said earlier this month that regime air strikes on Eastern Ghouta probably constitute war crimes.
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Rescue workers and opposition activists in Eastern Ghouta have accused the regime of using chlorine gas during the ongoing campaign there.
Mekdad said at a news conference Saturday that insurgents groups in eastern Ghouta are preparing "to fabricate" more such attacks to blame the Syrian army.
From Oman, Mattis said, he will travel to Bahrain to meet with King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa to reinforce a strong defense partnership. Oman is a longtime security partner of the USA, though some question whether it is facilitating, or turning a blind eye to, the movement of Iranian weapons to Yemen to aid Houthi rebels.
"I looked at President Putin's speech, and like many of us, I focused on the last third of it", Mattis said.
Qaboos has long endorsed terminating the violence in Yemen, Mattis noted, calling the sultan a "very strategic leader" who recognizes the advantage that violent extremists gain from disarray there.
While ostensibly a member of the Saudi-dominated Gulf Cooperation Council, Oman has struck out on its own diplomatic path in the region.
"Bahrain is a very strong defense relationship and a vital regional ally to the United States", Mattis said, noting that the USA 5th Fleet has its headquarters there. Regardless of "how much money they want to put into this arms race with themselves", Mattis said, the USA approach remains the same.
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