But few in the Pentagon, at least, have much faith in Moscow.
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But Pentagon officials told CNN that extreme mistrust of the Russians is coupled with logistical concerns that make such an agreement complicated. “No one thinks that any of this is actually going to come to pass”.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob CorkerBob CorkerHouse GOP hoping a “disciplined” Trump can win GOP House Armed Services chairman has “concerns” about Trump Kerry, Russians meeting to hammer out Syria deal MORE (R-Tenn.) expressed pessimism about the current U.S. -Russia talks after an event Tuesday on Capitol Hill hosted by Humans of Syria, a group trying to bring attention to the humanitarian crisis.
Speaking in Oxford, England, on Wednesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter accused Moscow of aggressive behavior aimed at eroding the global order.
A deal on Syria could place US-Russia ties in a firmer position as Obama prepares to leave office.
The deal focuses on a slowdown in the Syrian air campaign against rebel forces in return for an agreement that Russian and Syrian air forces can target Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, the former al-Nusra Front forces linked with al-Qaida. Their previous meeting was in Geneva on August 26.
“We will never allow the formation of an artificial state in the north of Syria”, Yildirim said in a speech in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir, where he announced an investment programme to rebuild parts of the largely Kurdish region that have been destroyed by security operations.
The newly installed commander of the USA -led coalition fighting the Islamic State isn’t convinced, either.
The US also faces the difficulty of getting rebels to break ranks with the Nusra Front: a hard challenge, after its fighters successfully broke the siege of Aleppo last month.
The dire situation facing the remaining population of Aleppo in northern Syria will not be helped by the United States and Russian Federation anytime soon following the collapse of talks on Sunday. An estimated 5 million Syrian refugees have fled the country during the past six years of war while more than 400,000 Syrians have been killed. Intervention by Russian Federation in 2015 allowed Assad to reverse the tide against the rebels and regain ground lost to the opposition. And opposition groups that have ties to Western governments have repeatedly rejected appeals from Washington to move out of areas where Nusra is located.
“Kerry’s trips would be a bit ridiculous, if they weren’t so dramatic for Syria”, said Joseph Bahout, a scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
A senior State Department official said the talks hit a stumble on Saturday when Russian Federation pulled back from agreement on issues the USA negotiators believed had been settled.
“Until we lay the last brick in a building, we can’t say that the results are achieved”, Ryabkov said.
The former USA ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford, agreed.
In a “flash update ” on Tuesday, the aid agency, OCHA, said figures from a camp co-ordination group show almost half of the displaced from Hama have arrived in the neighbouring rebel-held Idlib province.
The American defense official admitted that “we would have to sell this to the opposition”.
“In areas where there is just opposition or intermingling of opposition with Nusra, Assad will not be able to fly”, another senior administration official said.
“An terrible lot of technical things have been worked out, a lot of things are clear, but there still remain, as I say, “a couple of tough issues, Kerry told reporters”.
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Regional power Iran, arch-enemy of Saudi Arabia, is Assad’s strongest supporter and is determined to keep him in power in Damascus. The official spoke anonymously to discuss a private conversation.
