World News – Secretary of State John Kerry says he raised the email hack of the Democratic National Committee with Russia’s top diplomat but stopped short of making any allegation about who might be responsible.
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Russia and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) states are coordinating joint work on building modern security architecture in the Asia-Pacific Region (APR), Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Monday.
His comments followed remarks from Defense Secretary Ash Carter on Monday in which he said Kerry’s efforts with Russian Federation have been complicated by the fact that Russian Federation is focused mainly on supporting the Syrian government, which he said has had the effect of prolonging the civil war.
“We had hoped that they would promote a transition” out of power for Assad, Carter said.
“There will be specific procedures and processes in any transaction that we might have with the Russians that would account for protecting our operational security”, said Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “So they’re a long way from doing that”. In exchange Moscow would use its influence with the Syrian regime to effectively ground the Syrian air force.
Despite Russia being clear from the start in Syria they were keen to target both ISIS and Nusra, and offering from the start to share intelligence with the United States, many U.S. officials insist the deal s secretly some sort of trick by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The negotiations Kerry is having with the Russians, Carter said, are based on “mutual interest to the extent and when and as we are able to identify that with the Russians”.
Pentagon officials heavily objected to the deal after Russian Federation went so far as to bomb a secret operating base for USA special operators inside Syria last month, ostensibly to increase the pressure on Obama and Kerry.
“When you think about it, wouldn’t it be nice if we got along with Russian Federation?”
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“We don’t have any indication that the forces that we are providing support to in Syria are cooperating or intermingled with al-Nusra”, the general said.
