U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Moscow on Thursday with a proposal to boost military cooperation and intelligence sharing with Russian Federation against Islamic State and al Qaeda camps in Syria, despite doubts among U.S. officials.
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The new pact, being discussed today by Secretary of State John Kerry in Moscow, is aimed at rooting out and destroying ISIS in Syria.
While the Obama administration works to shift its Syria policy away from pressuring the Assad regime, Congress is taking a markedly different approach and working on a large sanctions package meant to punish the regime for mass atrocities and set the stage for the prosecution of war criminals in the Syrian government.
The military partnership is part of what USA officials are terming a final offer to Moscow.
Russian Federation first intervened on behalf of its ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, in late September. Past talks, mediated by Mr.de Mistura in Geneva, have failed to achieve a breakthrough and fighting has continued despite a US-Russian-backed ceasefire. A senior USA official said Kerry would discuss how to deal with Islamic State and al Qaeda in Syria, as well as efforts to reduce the violence, allow humanitarian access and move toward political transition.
Russian Federation would be getting what it wanted, to lead an worldwide alliance, since it first intervened in Syria on Assad’s behalf last September.
The Washington Post, citing a draft proposal from the United States, reported that the U.S. and Russian Federation would set up a joint command and control centre in Jordan to direct intensified air strikes against the jihadist groups. “I endangered my life by coming to the USA, testifying before Congress in hopes for justice and appealing to the moral conscience of free Americans”.
Under the proposal, the Joint Implementation Group would be headquartered in Amman, Jordan.
The first attack, on Monday, killed at least 123 people and injured scores more, many of them CIA-trained rebels and military or intelligence officers from allied Arab countries, said three US intelligence officials.
“U.S. and Russian officials with expertise in intelligence, targeting and air operations will “work together to defeat” the extremist groups”, according to the AP.
The document confirms and expands on details first reported by the Post last month about the Obama administration considering cooperating with Russian Federation in Syria to target al Nusra.
“The president has said that Assad has got to go, and our allies, especially the Saudis, hold that view very strongly”. At its most basic level, the former Cold War foes would share intelligence and targeting information.
He praised the Russians for their decisive intervention in the Syrian conflict late past year saying their support of Syria’s army “has tipped the scales against the terrorists”.
According to the militants, Shishani died from injuries sustained by US -led coalition airstrikes in Mosul, Iraq. Nusra’s fighters are often embedded with such groups on the battlefield or move between various militant formations.
For that reason, the US has nearly entirely avoided bombing Nusra targets in recent months.
Suggestions of US force don’t carry much weight, given the unfulfilled threats throughout the war.
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Better targeting al-Nusra is also a high USA priority. And a coordinated U.S. -Russia bombing campaign could further exploit Islamic State weaknesses, shrinking its territory and ability to attack. Al-Saloum, the group’s spokesman, demanded “an immediate transitional period”.
