A shaky Russia-U.S.-brokered cease-fire, which began in late February, is barely holding together and is not being honored by groups that include al-Nusra Front and the IS.
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He said this was not the first time Russian Federation had made such a proposal.
Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis told reporters, “Nothing’s formally been presented to us”.
Shoigu said that the free crossing of al-Nusra Front and Daesh terrorists through the Syrian-Turkish border destabilizes the situation in Syria.
But any such proposal would need backing from Washington and its partners, whose airstrikes have concentrated on the Islamic State strongholds in Syria.
“We believe that adopting these measures will ensure the transition to a peace settlement process over all of Syria’s territory”, Shoigu said. “Of course, such measures have been agreed with the Syrian Arab Republic”, Shoigu said Friday.
“I can only tell you from where I sit, and from where we sit today that we do not collaborate or coordinate with the Russians on any operations in Syria”, Davis said.
“Russian operations are supporting and enabling the Assad regime and our focus is exclusively on degrading and defeating [ISIS]”, Davis said.
“Don’t see it happening”, another US official said, adding the USA military “will ensure safety of flight but nothing else”.
Shoigu said yesterday that Russian Federation would reserve its right to unilaterally strike “international terrorist and illegal armed groups that have not adhered to the cessation of hostilities” starting from May 25.
But Assad’s forces have violated the deal with airstrikes and ground attacks, and some rebel groups have likewise acted against the accord. “We don’t have military-to-military relations with Russian Federation”.
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Since the Russian military campaign began last September to shore up Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces in their battle against Islamic militants, Moscow has staunchly denied that its warplanes have hit any civilian areas in Syria.
