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    Senior Member Judy's Avatar
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    US renews offer to cooperate with Russia on Syria

    US renews offer to cooperate with Russia on Syria

    Published July 06, 2017
    Associated Press

    What to expect from Trump-Putin meeting at G-20 summit

    The Trump administration on Wednesday renewed an offer to cooperate with Russia in the Syrian conflict, including on military matters, ahead of President Donald Trump's meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin later this week.

    In a statement, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the U.S. is open to establishing no-fly zones in Syria in coordination with Russia as well as jointly setting up a truce monitoring and humanitarian aid delivery mechanism. The statement came as Trump prepared to meet with Putin on Friday in Germany and as the U.S. seeks to consolidate gains made against the Islamic State (ISIS) in recent weeks and prepare for a post-ISIS group future.

    Tillerson noted that the U.S. and Russia have a variety of unresolved differences but said Syria is an opportunity for the two countries to create stability in Syria. He said that ISIS had been "badly wounded" and may be on the "brink of complete defeat" as U.S.-backed forces continue their assault on the self-proclaimed ISIS capital of Raqqa. But he stressed that Russia has to play a constructive role.

    "While there are no perfect options for guaranteeing stability, we must explore all possibilities for holding the line against the resurgence of ISIS or other terrorist groups," Tillerson said. "The United States and Russia certainly have unresolved differences on a number of issues, but we have the potential to appropriately coordinate in Syria in order to produce stability and serve our mutual security interests."

    He said that Russia, as an ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad and a participant in the conflict, "has a responsibility to ensure that the needs of the Syrian people are met and that no faction in Syria illegitimately re-takes or occupies areas liberated from ISIS' or other terrorist groups' control." Tillerson added that Russia has "an obligation to prevent any further use of chemical weapons of any kind by the Assad regime."

    The appeal echoed similar entreaties made to Putin by the Obama administration that were largely ignored by Moscow, but they came just two days ahead of Trump's first face-to-face meeting with the Russian leader that is set to take place on Friday on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany.

    And, the offer went beyond the Obama administration's offers, suggesting that cooperation in establishing no-fly zones was possible. Tillerson noted that despite differences, the U.S. and Russia are having success in avoiding accidents between American and Russian planes flying over an extremely complex conflict zone. Minor incidents, he said, had been dealt with "quickly and peacefully."

    "This cooperation over de-confliction zones process is evidence that our two nations are capable of further progress," Tillerson said.

    "The United States is prepared to explore the possibility of establishing with Russia joint mechanisms for ensuring stability, including no-fly zones, on the ground ceasefire observers, and coordinated delivery of humanitarian assistance."

    "If our two countries work together to establish stability on the ground, it will lay a foundation for progress on the settlement of Syria's political future," he said.

    http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017...-on-syria.html
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    US-backed forces say battle to retake Raqqa from Isis 'will take months'

    Diplomats plan for the fall of Isis, as Kurdish and Arab fighters continue to push forward into the terror group’s Syrian stronghold

    Martin Chulov in Beirut
    Thursday 6 July 2017 01.05 EDT

    US-backed forces encircling Raqqa expect the fight to oust the remnants of Islamic State from its most symbolic Syrian stronghold to take at least three months, despite rapid advances towards the city centre this week.

    The advance met with fierce resistance on Wednesday, as Isis fighters used an eighth-century fortified wall as a buffer against Kurdish and Arab fighters known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), who had been claiming neighbourhoods of the city, while steadily closing in from its surrounds.

    With the wall now breached, and Raqqa all but encircled, the fate of at least 60,000 residents trapped inside is growing increasingly desperate. A volunteer fighter with Kurdish troops said as many as 50 airstrikes were hitting Raqqa each day, and observers suggested that as many as half of the reported 740 civilian deaths in Syria last month may have been caused by bombs dropped on the city by aircraft of the US-led coalition.

    “We also see a lot of drone bombs,” said Paul Hatfield, an American volunteer with Kurdish forces. “We had hundreds of them since we started in Raqqa.”

    Hatfield said his unit was in a dense neighbourhood about five miles from the city centre, and had been holding the SDF’s western line of attack for the past two weeks. “It’s very dangerous, with a lot of [Isis] snipers,” he said.

    The looming fall of the Syrian capital of its so-called caliphate has squeezed Isis east from Raqqa towards Deir ez-Zor and a 200-mile stretch of the Euphrates river valley heading towards Iraq, where senior leaders have sought refuge in the town of Mayadin.

    The Euphrates river region is fast emerging as one of the most crucial parts of a country devastated by a multi-faceted war, which international players are increasingly seeking to calm by carving out zones of influence across Syria.

    Regional diplomats have earmarked at least five areas in Syria where neighbouring states could potentially help broker localised truces. But the complexity of the conflict and competing agendas has meant binding solutions remain elusive.

    Talks in Istanbul, Amman, London and Washington in recent weeks have attempted to game ways that the ultimate fall of Isis will not lead to a further conflagration, which would turn what remains of Syria into an ungovernable rump.

    Particular attention has been paid to southern Syria, where Russia has proposed to establish one of four “de-escalation” zones, which would cover the border town of Quneitra and the Golan Heights, where Israel believes Iran is attempting to consolidate a strategic hub.

    One proposal put to Moscow is to allow Syrian troops to return to the Jordanian border in return for Iran pulling its forces and proxies from the area. “It’s a long shot,” said an official in Istanbul. “But the Russians are keen to broker a deal. The peace process they started in Astana isn’t working.”

    Moscow said it plans to send forces, most likely military police, to Syria within two or three weeks, after concluding a deal with Turkey and Iran. Rex Tillerson, the US secretary of state, told his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, earlier this week that a solution for Syria was now “in Russia’s hands”.

    Tillerson has since told senior European diplomats that his remarks were an attempt to “call Russia’s bluff”. However, US allies in the region say the fast declining interest of Washington in crafting any deal suggests further US disengagement.

    Eastern Syria, where Isis is preparing a last stand, is one of two areas of the country where the Trump administration retains an interest in the conflict – the other being the north-east, where 6,000 US-backed Kurdish and Arab troops are attacking Isis, diplomats said.

    “It is becoming about Iran for them out there,” said one official. “It was about Isis and only Isis. But things are turning. How that works out is anyone’s guess. Though Iran are doing very well. They are patient, intelligent and cautious actors. The Americans have got nothing to counter them. One school of thought is just to leave it to them. But then, what will the Israelis do?”

    Israeli military and intelligence officers have been regularly involved in meetings held in Jordan about developments in southern and eastern Syria, and have regularly expressed fears of Iran consolidating a presence in both areas as the war with Isis subsides.

    In the heart of Raqqa though, there is little sign of that happening soon. “At the moment in Raqqa we have four fronts,” said Hatfield. “A few days ago we had an offensive where we tried to push as close to the city centre as possible and we are still holding the western line which hasn’t moved in the last 13 days.

    “At the moment my unit is in a dense neighbourhood about five [miles] from the city centre, with four to six storey high-rise apartment complexes. The snipers are horrible. They have a major advantage there. They have tunnels connecting every building of the neighbourhood. We blow them up once we move into a new area but they still have more and they manage to move around.

    “They are really dug in, they are professional, a lot of them foreigners. Very experienced fighters, they have been fighting for a long time. They try to outflank us with every opportunity.

    “I estimate the operation to last three months. The air support has been amazing. We are seeing probably 50 airstrikes per day ... If that keeps up we will continue advancing.”

    UN war crimes investigators have denounced a “staggering loss of civilian life” caused by the US-backed campaign to reclaim the city.

    Additional reporting by Achilleas Zavallis

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...ll-take-months
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