The United States opened the door on Thursday to possible tactical discussions with Russian Federation about the war in Syria, as Moscow’s deepening military presence raised the prospect of some limited coordination between the former Cold War foes.
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Carter, who was speaking with Shoygu for the first time since the deployment became known, said through his spokesman that the conversation was “constructive” and that they “talked about areas where the United States and Russia’s perspectives overlap and areas of divergence”.
The images emerged as Putin gave his strongest admission yet that Russian Federation was already providing some military and logistical support to Syria.
Russia-US military-to-military contacts were stopped in March 2014 after Russian troops’ involvement in the annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.
Cook said that Carter “emphasized the importance of pursuing such consultations in parallel with diplomatic talks that would ensure a political transition in Syria“, referring the the ousting of President Assad.
“We welcome their help to get rid of ISIL and to have a legitimate political transition”, Kerry said. The base had been besieged by the extremists for two years.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told CNN his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, has proposed a “military-to-military conversation” aimed at ensuring their forces and those of the coalition do not conflict with one another.
The Obama administration said Wednesday is was considering how to respond to a Russian proposal for military talks over Syria, where Moscow is expanding its forces even as U.S. warplanes conduct daily air strikes against Islamist militants.
Syria’s foreign minister Walid al-Moualem said on Thursday that Russia had provided new weapons and trained Syrian troops how to use them, and told state television the government would be prepared ask Russian forces to fight alongside its troops if needed.
Kerry said that it is necessary to “retool and calibrate” in order to continue the battle against the Daesh and eradicate the terrorists from the region. “We have been all along but the migration levels and continued destruction, the danger of potential augmentation by any unilateral moves puts a high premium on diplomacy at this moment”, he said.
Despite Western criticisms, Putin has been a steadfast supporter of the Assad regime throughout Syria’s years-long civil war, which has killed some 250,000 people and made millions of others into refugees.
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He played down proposals for a peace initiative that Assad ally Iran has said it presented to Syrian officials.
