Defense Secretary Ash Carter on Monday said he was open to working with Russian Federation toward shared goals in war-torn Syria but expressed doubt over whether a military partnership would work.
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“Our interests are to see a political transition promoted, number one, and that puts an end to the violence in Syria and gives the Syrian people back a government and a life that they deserve”.
He was speaking at the start of talks with Secretary of State John Kerry on the sidelines of a meeting of Southeast Asian nations in Laos.
Moscow and Washington have differed over the role of the Nusra Front, al-Qaida’s branch in Syria, with Russian calling the group terrorists and the US asking Russia not to target them for fear of hitting the moderate opposition.
When a reporter told Carter that he sounded unenthusiastic about the Kerry effort, Carter said, “No, I’m very enthusiastic about the idea of the Russians getting on side and doing the right thing”.
Russian Federation and the United States back opposing sides in Syria’s five-year war, which has left 280,000 people dead and forced half the population to flee their homes. They also believe that Russia’s decision last month to strike a rebel outpost in southeast Syria that has been used by British and USA troops was an intentional provocation. For now, US and Russian cooperation in Syria is limited to a memorandum of understanding for sharing Syrian airspace, which focuses on safety and avoiding aviation mishaps between the two air forces.
Any military or intelligence cooperation between the United States and Russian Federation to strike targets in Syria would include measures to ensure US operational security and would not be based on trust, a top USA military official said on Monday. “But that’s what Secretary Kerry’s trying to promote”.
“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.
“We’re not entering into a transaction that’s founded on trust. There will be specific procedures and processes in any transaction we might have with the Russians that would – that would account for protecting our operational security”, he said.
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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However, on the topic of Russian cyber intrusions at the Pentagon, such as one a year ago that took down the Joint Staff’s email accounts for weeks, Dunford said, “We’re well aware of state actors to include Russia that have attempted to penetrate our network”.
