The Cable
Secretary of State John Kerry is in Moscow to deliver a bold new proposal to President Vladimir Putin that calls for the two countries to begin coordinating military activities in Syria, including sharing daily intelligence on Islamic State and Nusra Front targets.
The plan, which was leaked to the Washington Post, includes establishing a Joint Implementation Group near the Jordanian capital Amman, staffed by military and intelligence officials from both countries. They would share intel that identifies leadership targets, training camps, and supply lines for the Nusra Front, al Qaeda’s Syrian franchise. Either Russian or American planes would then hit those targets. The coordination would come in exchange for Russian pressure on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down.
The plan comes after months of harsh U.S. criticism of Russian actions in Syria, and claims that Russian planes are directly supporting the Assad regime by bombing a variety of anti-Assad rebel groups, including U.S.-backed fighters, as opposed to targeting ISIS. Just last month, Russian bombers dropped cluster munitions on U.S.-backed Syrian rebels at their camp in southern Syria. And Defense Secretary Ash Carter has said that Russian support for Assad is “leading to the prolongation of the civil war in Syria,” and “the Russians have been way off track since the very beginning…They have not done what they said they were going to do and they’re not doing what is in their interest to do in terms of fighting ISIL.”
Me, worry? Assad, for his part, isn’t worried. He told NBC News Thursday that neither Putin nor Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has never talked to him about leaving power. “They never said a single word regarding this,” he said. He also claimed to be unconcerned about the potential for greater coordination between Russian and the U.S., “because their politics, I mean, the Russian politics, is not based on making deals. It’s based on values,” Assad said.
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