“They (Russia) never said a single word regarding this”, he told NBC.
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US Secretary of State John Kerry, who was on his way to Moscow for talks with President Vladimir Putin, did not deny the report, but refused to discuss the proposal in detail until he had been to the Kremlin.
“I think people all over the world are looking to us and waiting for us to find a faster and more tangible way for them feeling that everything that is possible has been done to end this terrorist scourge and to unite the world in the most comprehensive efforts possible to fight back against their nihilistic and depraved approach to life and death”, Kerry said.
Kerry and Putin were optimistic.
Kerry did not deny the proposal – reported by the Washington Post Thursday – and it would mark a dramatic shift if it brought together Assad s key backer Moscow and his major foe Washington.
Mozahem al-Saloum of the New Syrian Army, which is fighting the Islamic State in eastern Syria, blamed the Nusra Front for paving the way for the Islamic State, and said the US plan could work if it guarantees Assad’s departure.
“They have to decide if they’re going to use the military to prop up the Assad regime or if they’re going to use their military to go after extremists”, Earnest said, “Our case is you can’t do both”.
The proposal was discussed amid harsh criticism blaming the Obama administration for conceding to Russian demands in Syria.
President Putin also noted the mutual efforts to resolve the conflict.
Echoing that concern, a Kremlin official said Thursday it wasn’t clear the two sides would reach a deal because they remain at odds over the links between Nusra and other rebel groups.
Kerry’s trip, his second to Moscow this year, comes amid a worsening of US-Russian ties due to tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions, US allegations of aggressive Russian manoeuvres toward US aircraft and vessels and what Washington has said is a disregard for a cessation of hostilities in Syria, where Russia has bombed US-backed rebels.
“The Russian air force has increased the intensity of its strikes against targets of the armed units of global terrorist organisations near the city of Palmyra”, the ministry said in a statement Thursday on its Facebook page.
“If the things we talked about and agreed ought to be implemented are in fact implemented, then this has the opportunity to change the playing field significantly”, Mr Kerry said.
At present, the Assad regime is flying about 24 sorties a day, a U.S. military official said.
The two sides agreed on the common goal to eliminate threats from the Islamic State, Jebhat al-Nusra and other terrorist groups in Syria, and to curb foreign sources of support for terrorism in the country, Lavrov said after their marathon talks.
“The president and I both believe – this president – that the United States and Russian Federation are in a position to make an enormous difference in the course of events – not just in Syria, but obviously Ukraine, and even in other potential areas of cooperation”.
Residents said convoys of cars were processing around the Mazzeh district of the Syrian capital, with people waving flags and shouting: “God, Syria and Bashar!”. Russian Federation hasn’t hesitated. But in taking out Nusra forces, the US says Russian Federation also has killed hundreds of moderate, anti-Assad fighters and civilians.
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Saudi Arabia is supporting various rebel groups fighting the Damascus regime, some of whom have close ties with the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra Front and are not considered moderates.
