Kerry, who held talks this week by telephone with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, said Wednesday he wants a “complete and clear understanding” of what Russia’s intentions are.
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“The secretary and the minister talked about areas where the United States and Russia’s perspectives overlap and areas of divergence”, the Pentagon said in a statement Friday.
The United States is open to any ideas Moscow might have about taking the fight to the IS group, but has warned Russian Federation that its support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is counterproductive.
The United States and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation broke off direct military contacts with Moscow in April previous year in protest at Russia´s intervention in Ukraine.
“We welcome their help to get rid of ISIL and to have a legitimate political transition”, Kerry said.
According to the officials, Russian Federation is sending two military cargo flights daily to a Latakia air base, and previously it was revealed Russian Federation has sent around 200 naval infantry forces, tanks, artillery and other military hardware to an air base in the same region.
The Russian defense ministry’s spokesperson Major General Igor Konashenkov also noted the positive outcome, saying that “the course of the conversation has shown that the sides’ opinions on the majority of issues under consideration are close or coincide”.
“We would welcome Russian contributions to the overall global effort against (the IS group) but things that continue to support the Assad regime, particularly military things, are unhelpful and risk adding greater instability to an already unstable situation”, Davis said.
Ahead of the meeting Mr Kerry said Russian Federation and America “share the same goals” in the battle against IS, also known as Isil, in Syria.
Earnest said the administration’s stance on Russia’s moves in Syria remains the same as it was last week when Obama told U.S. troops that a strategy to prop up Assad is “doomed to failure”.
Washington has expressed concern about Moscow’s growing military support for the Syrian regime, even as it conducts its own air strikes against Islamic State rebels in the country.
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“They can not accept the reality that we are the only power fighting [the Islamic State] on the ground”, he said of the USA “For them, maybe if they cooperate with the Syrian Army, this is like a recognition or our effectiveness in fighting [the Islamic State]”. Russia’s presidential council for human rights has in its turn asked the Defence Ministry to look into the reports.
