Kerry arrived in Moscow on Thursday evening with a proposal to boost military and intelligence cooperation with Russian Federation against Islamic State and al Qaeda in Syria, despite doubts among US defense and intelligence officials.
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The extent of coordination set out in the document would represent a major shift after years of rivalry between Washington and Moscow, who support opposing sides in Syria’s five-year-old civil war.
“We’ve always made clear that we would welcome a contribution – a military contribution from Russian Federation, as long as they were focused on ISIL and al-Qaeda’s presence in Syria”, White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters in Washington Thursday, using an acronym for Islamic State. Kerry himself took a tough line after his meeting on Thursday with Putin, State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters in Moscow.
“Since that time we have seen the security situation stability erode and that has dealt a setback to efforts to reach up political agreement”, he said.
The eight-page proposal, which The Washington Post published on its website, shows the US offering intelligence and targeting sharing, and even joint bombing operations. Putin had expressed reluctance to meet with Kerry, and the US delegation seemed more prepared for the Lavrov-Kerry talks than did the Russians, unloading large binders onto the negotiation table compared with the Russians’ handful of papers.
Central Intelligence Agency spooks were said to be furious at Mr Kerry’s overtures to Moscow after Russian Federation allegedly bombed two bases used by their proxy forces near the Jordanian border this week.
In an interview with NBC News, Assad said neither Russian Foreign Secretary Lavrov or President Vladimir Putin has asked him to give up power despite speculation that a backchannel between Russia and the United States would call for him to leave office.
“President Obama and Kerry and others are pressing this because they see a dead end otherwise”, said Michael Wahid Hanna, a senior fellow in NY at the Century Foundation.
But, while the Islamic State’s so-called “caliphate” has global ambitions, Al-Nusra – an affiliate of Al-Qaeda – has concentrated on battling Assad, fighting alongside other rebel groups backed by USA allies.
“Hopefully we’ll be able to make some genuine progress that is measurable and implementable and that can make a difference in the course of events in Syria”, Kerry said.
Earlier this week, Russian Federation struck camps housing displaced persons and U.S.-backed Free Syrian Army fighters.
“I would like to note our mutual effort in the settlement of conflicts that we deem important to resolve”, Putin said as the pair met at the Kremlin, conveying his regards to President Barack Obama.
Despite repeated announcements of ceasefires, Syrian government forces have continued offensives on a range of fronts, with fighting especially heavy around second city Aleppo in recent weeks.
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They would decide on a date to simultaneously begin strikes against Nusra Front targets and to stop all Syrian military air activities in designated areas, except for non-combat purposes and against areas where Nusra Front has acquired territory. He said his group would continue fighting alongside Nusra.
