Fighters from Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaida’s affiliate in Syria, move towards their positions during an offensive in Idlib province.
The US is seeking closer cooperation with Russia in the fight against Islamic State and al-Qaida’s Syrian branch in the hope that President Bashar al-Assad will stop attacking the mainstream rebels who are fighting to overthrow him.
US officials said the plan under discussion would also require western and Arab-backed opposition forces to distance themselves from Jabhat al-Nusra, linked to al-Qaida, to avoid being hit in airstrikes. Both Jabhat al-Nusra and Isis are proscribed by the UN and seen as legitimate targets by Washington and Moscow.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights, meanwhile, reported on Friday that 6,567 civilians had been killed in the first half of 2016 – 1,271 of them in June alone. Unofficial estimates used by the UN say some 400,000 people have died since the Syrian uprising began in 2011. Millions have been made homeless.
News of the latest US initiative, reported by the Washington Post, came as the UN envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, admitted that conditions were still not ripe to reconvene the suspended Geneva peace talks ahead of a 1 August deadline for the start of a “political transition” in Damascus.
The paper said the Obama administration has submitted a proposal that includes “enhanced information sharing”, though no decisions have been made. Russia is also being asked to pressure Assad to halt the bombing of armed rebel groups that are supported by the US.
The US defence secretary, Ashton Carter, said that if Russia would “do the right thing in Syria – that’s an important condition – as in all cases with Russia, we’re willing to work with them.”
The idea is likely to be greeted with scepticism by critics of US policy on Syria, which is widely seen to be overly dependent on Russian goodwill and cooperation. Overall, however, there seems to be increasing convergence between the two big powers despite their ostensible disagreement about Assad’s fate.
The formal US position is that the president should step down, but Russia has continued to back him and to insist that his future is a matter for the Syrian people alone. The anti-Assad opposition fears a deal between Washington and Moscow on an imposed solution that will leave the president in place.
Assad himself said in an interview that Syrian cooperation with Russia and Iran – his main regional ally – was intended to restore stability. “The chaos in Syria is going to provoke the domino effect in our region,” he told the Australian broadcaster SBS. “It’s going to affect the neighbouring countries, it’s going to affect Iran, it’s going to affect Russia, it’s going to affect Europe.”
De Mistura told al-Hadath TV on Thursday that the key countries involved needed to work “with a feeling of urgency” to get the Geneva talks started again. Despite not being able to set a date for a resumption, he hinted at grounds for optimism. “I want to believe, and I think I have reasons to believe, that both Russia and the US – who are crucial because they are the co-chairs – have both an urgent vested interest in avoiding that this conflict starts again and becomes open ended,” he said.
He also said he had worked out how to untangle what he called the “Assad knot” – the central problem of irreconcilable demands about his political future – but he did elaborate.
Restoring the always patchy cessation of hostilities agreement that was brokered by the US and Russia last February appears to be a pre-condition for any progress towards a political solution to the war.
Brexit, said De Mistura, was another “casualty” of the Syrian crisis – a view held by many of those involved. “The consequences of this conflict are affecting everyone, even producing a sense of concern in European countries to the point of reaching that type of consequence.”
Britain on Friday appealed for wider humanitarian access to besieged areas of Syria, noting recent progress but demanding deliveries to eight areas that have not yet been reached by the UN. “Until we see a change in regime behaviour, thousands will continue to starve,” warned Gareth Bayley, the UK special envoy for Syria.
Britain also announced on Thursday that it would increase support to Iraqi forces fighting Isis by deploying 50 additional trainers on improvised explosive devices, infantry skills and combat first aid. The extra personnel will be working with US and Danish forces, providing training to the Iraqi army, border guards and federal police. Britain will also provide 80 army engineers to build infrastructure to support this deployment at an airbase in western Iraq.
Source : https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/01/syria-us-russia-cooperate-fight-islamic-extremists-united-nations
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