U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry took a proposal to boost military and intelligence cooperation against Islamic State and al Qaeda in Syria to Moscow on Thursday, despite doubts among U.S. defense and intelligence officials.
Kerry was due to meet President Vladimir Putin on Thursday evening and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday, and U.S. officials described the visit as a test of Moscow's willingness to help revive Syria's peace process.
The extent of coordination with Russia proposed by Kerry and set out in a leaked U.S. document published in the Washington Post newspaper on Thursday would represent a major shift after years of rivalry between Washington and Moscow, who support opposing sides in Syria's five-year civil war.
The document called for intelligence sharing to identify leadership targets, training camps, supply lines and headquarters of the Nusra Front, al Qaeda's affiliate in Syria.
Strikes against those targets could be carried out by U.S. or Russian jets and expanded coordination would be channeled through a Joint Implementation Group based in the vicinity of the Jordanian capital Amman.
The United States and Russia would establish separate headquarters for the operation and a shared coordination office, where they would deploy senior officials, intelligence personnel and experts in strike planning and targeting.
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.
The proposal also allows for Russia to use air power to defend Syrian forces from attack from Nusra Front within a designated area, if agreed in advance with the United States.
Kerry declined to comment when asked about the document.
"I'll have comments, going to Moscow, meeting with President Putin tonight; we'll have plenty of time to talk about it and I'll give you all a sense of where we are," he told reporters.
HUMANITARIAN ACCESS
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he would refrain from comment until Russian officials had heard from Kerry. He said in general Russia favored cooperation with the United States over Syria, while the RIA news agency quoted Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying that Moscow was not satisfied with the current pace of this.
A senior U.S. official said Kerry would discuss how to deal with Islamic State and al Qaeda in Syria, as well as efforts to reduce the violence, allow humanitarian access and move towards political transition.
"At present we are not conducting or coordinating military operations with Russia, nor is it clear we will reach an agreement to do so," the official said.
Another U.S. official said there were two major problems leading to the breakdown of Syria's cessation of hostilities - the failure of the Syrian government to respect it and Nusra Front activity.
He said time was running out to revive efforts towards a political solution.
"We are here to test in what is pretty much close to the end stage of whether this is going to work, to take a shot with the Russians at whether we can solve those two major problems with the cessation of hostilities and get this back on track."
A third U.S. official said expectations were "very low", but added:
"Either we find a way to do something about it or not. And if we don’t, the entire things breaks down. That would be an end of the cessation of hostilities and that would not be a good thing for Russia, or the United states, or the world, or, most importantly, for the Syrian people."
Kerry faces strong opposition to his efforts to woo Russia from U.S. defense and intelligence officials who say Washington and Moscow have diametrically opposed objectives in Syria. Moscow backs President Bashar al-Assad, who Washington and its allies say must step down.
Kerry's trip, his second to Moscow this year, comes amid a worsening of U.S.-Russian ties due to tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions, U.S. allegations of aggressive Russian maneuvers toward U.S. aircraft and vessels and what Washington has said is a disregard for a cessation of hostilities in Syria, where Russia has bombed U.S.-backed rebels.
Relations between Moscow and Washington also remain strained over the Ukraine crisis and what the Kremlin considers NATO’s unjustified activities 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 from the Baltics to the Black Sea.
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.
"I’d be a little leery about giving too much information to the Russians but I fully trust that our government officials understand this and know they’ll arrive at something that makes sense," MacFarland told reporters in Baghdad.
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