Asked if he wanted to comment on the reported U.S. offer of a military pact, Kerry said: “I don’t right now”.
Advertisement
On Thursday Kerry told journalists in Paris: “I’m going to Moscow, meeting with President Putin tonight”.
The talks in Moscow come less than three weeks before President Barack Obama’s August deadline for diplomatic progress expires.
United Nations Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura says an upcoming US-Russia meeting is critical for the Syria peace process, expressing hope that the event will make progress on resolving the crisis in the Middle Eastern country.
The report, released on Wednesday, said Kerry will discuss the proposal with Russian officials in Moscow.
Kerry, who expressed his growing concern about the slow progress in resolving the Syrian conflict despite agreements between Russian Federation and the US, called for increased efforts, as Syria “is the main source and incubator of terrorists”.
As well as sharing intelligence and targeting information, it would “co-ordinate procedures to permit integrated operations”.
Kerry was due to arrive later on Thursday in Moscow, a close ally of Assad’s government that launched air strikes in support of regime forces last September.
In return, “the Syrian military can employ military action, including air activities, against the Nusra Front outside of designated areas if Nusra acquires territory there”.
Efforts to end the war have taken on greater urgency since the emergence of the Islamic State jihadist group, which seized control of large parts of Syria and Iraq in mid-2014. “That would be an end of the cessation of hostilities and that would not be a good thing for Russian Federation, or the United states, or the world, or, most importantly, for the Syrian people”.
The military partnership is part of what US officials are terming a final offer to Moscow.
The United States is offering Russian Federation a new military pact against the Islamic State and al-Qaida’s affiliate in Syria, according to a leaked USA proposal.
He declined to comment on a Washington Post report that the United States was proposing increased cooperation and intelligence-sharing with Russian Federation to identify and target Islamic State and al Qaeda operations in Syria.
In his interview with NBC, Assad also said that a U.S. reporter Marie Colvin killed in alleged Syrian government bombardment in 2012 was responsible for her own death. That has raised fears that disagreements could escalate into confrontations, either accidental in Syria or the result of miscalculations in the air and naval encounters from the Baltics to the Black Sea.
The U.S. has been bombing the Islamic State in Syria since the summer of 2014.
Advertisement
Bits and pieces of the U.S. -Russia plan have been leaking out in recent days, and there are many skeptics in the U.S. who feel the most likely outcome would be to help Russian Federation achieve it’s aim of bolstering the embattled Assad.
