'They will be thanking me': Trump defends firing of FBI director

US President Donald Trump has defended his firing of the FBI's director, blasting Democratic critics who decried the move and vowing to replace James Comey with someone "far better."

Trump

President Donald J. Trump walks on the South Lawn of the White House on May 7, 2017 in Washington, DC. Source: Getty

In a series of tweets, the US President has defended his decision to fire FBI Director James Comey. 

"Comey lost the confidence of almost everyone in Washington, Republican and Democrat alike. When things calm down, they will be thanking me," Trump wrote on Twitter one day after he fired the top US law enforcement official.
Comey had been leading a probe into the Trump 2016 presidential campaign's possible collusion with Russia to influence the election outcome.

Kellyanne Conway on firing of FBI director

Lavrov to meet Trump amid uproar

Trump will receive Russia's top diplomat Sergei Lavrov at the White House on Wednesday, even as a political firestorm has put Moscow's alleged meddling in the US election back in the spotlight.

Lavrov's visit, confirmed by the White House late Tuesday, centers on a Russian proposal to de-escalate the violence in Syria's civil war.

But it comes just a day after the president stunned Washington by firing James Comey as director of the FBI amid an investigation into whether Trump campaign aides colluded with Russia to sway the November elections.

The sacking prompted angry Democrats to call for the Russia probe to be placed in the hands an independent prosecutor or commission.

The uproar seemed certain to complicate Lavrov's mission in search of US support for a Russian plan to create safe zones in Syria.

"Just as we do, the Americans need this meeting," Lavrov told Russian television.

In Moscow, meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin met Wednesday with his security council to discuss US-Russian relations in the context of Lavrov's meeting with Trump, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the RIA Novosti news agency.
Lavrov first holds talks with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and then goes on to the White House to meet Trump.

Lavrov, who last set foot in Washington in August 2013, would be the highest ranking Russian official to meet with Trump since he took office.

Relations between the two former Cold War foes soured under former president Barack Obama over Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014 and its unyielding support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Since March 2011, the Syrian conflict has caused more than 320,000 deaths and forced millions of refugees to flee. Neither Washington, which backs the opposition, nor Moscow, a longtime ally of the Syrian regime, have managed to find a solution to the conflict.

Since the end of Obama's presidency in January, the United States has gradually withdrawn from the diplomatic process, leaving Russia to take the lead.

The US was not part of a deal by government backers Russia and Iran, and rebel supporter Turkey, signed last Thursday in the Kazakh capital Astana on establishing safe zones in Syria.


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Published 10 May 2017 9:47pm
Updated 10 May 2017 10:07pm
Source: AFP, Reuters

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