The new proposal, as revealed in a leaked document, was an offer for the U.S. military to work with Russian Federation against the Al-Nusra Front and Islamic State (IS) jihadist groups.
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The new offer represents a new recognition by the US that Nusra must be defeated to end the fighting.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will discuss the proposal in Moscow later Thursday.
Kerry will meet with President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Captain Abdelsalam Abdurrazek, a spokesman for Nur al-Din Zenki, a CIA-vetted rebel entity fighting near Aleppo, decried the USA for offering “to support an ally of the Syrian regime and an enemy of the Syrian people”.
“I’m going to Moscow, meeting with President [Vladimir] Putin tonight”, Kerry told reporters in Paris.
“It’s kind of a diplomatic Hail Mary to rescue the Obama admin’s flailing Syria policy”, he said. He said the only question for Russian Federation was whether the USA would join it in doing so.
As an example, he pointed to Russia’s campaign against al-Nusra around Aleppo, Syria’s second city, which is divided between government and rebel forces.
A large number of officials at the State Department, Pentagon and US intelligence community are opposed to the proposed alliance, according to several American officials.
Assad questioned the real intentions of the United States, saying if Washington was serious about fighting the terror groups, Damascus would have found mutual interest with the United States.
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”.
“This could get a lot uglier”, Kerry had said during a congressional hearing in March.
The US is expected to offer to cooperate with Russian Federation in Syria, in a controversial deal which would see Washington effectively change course and help shore up President Bashar al-Assad. The official said it was still not clear the US would be able to reach a deal on military cooperation with Russian Federation.
Russian Federation has been a major ally of Assad while the United States, which backs rebels seeking to overthrow Assad, has called for him to leave power.
“He’s ignoring the fact that the Russians and their Syrian allies have made no distinction between bombing ISIS and killing members of the moderate opposition, including some people that we’ve trained”, the official said, using an acronym for the militant group.
“Either we find a way to do something about it or not”.
ISIS claimed on Thursday that it had shot down a Syrian government plane and killed its pilot, according to the Associated Press.
Under this road map, signed by both Syria’s ally Iran and Assad’s pro-rebel foe Saudi Arabia, a nationwide ceasefire will precede Geneva-based talks on “political transition”.
But many in the US military are wary of working closely with the Russians, saying they do not trust Moscow to deliver on such promises.
Operations by both the U.S. coalition and Russian Federation have seen the group lose territory recently and Moscow said it had carried out more than 50 strikes against IS near the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra over the past three days.
Relations also remain strained over Ukraine and what the Kremlin considers NATO’s unjustified activity along its borders.
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 elsewhere.
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On Thursday, the commander of the U.S. -led coalition battling Islamic State, U.S. Army Lieutenant General Sean MacFarland, voiced U.S. military concern about Russia’s intentions in Syria.
