Russia Proposes ‘Division of Labor’ With US: You Deal With Iraq, We'll Deal With Syria
(CNSNews.com) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov suggested Monday that Russia and the U.S.-led coalition split the task of bombing ISIS terrorists, with Russia focusing on Syria and the U.S. and its allies on Iraq.
“Such ‘division of labor’ would be absolutely logical,” Lavrov said during a joint press conference in Moscow with Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Secretary-General Lamberto Zannier.
“The coalition has been invited to Iraq, but it has not been invited to Syria. Such coordinated actions could be useful to ensure efficiency, legitimacy and compliance with international law. We are ready for that.”
Lavrov noted that Russia is operating in Syria at the request of the Assad regime – unlike the U.S. and its partners, which in the Kremlin’s view, have violated Syrian sovereignty and international law by carrying out military operation there over the past year.
In Iraq, the U.S.-led coalition has been acting against ISIS at the request of the government in Baghdad; Russia has not extended its airstrikes into Iraq although Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has said he “would welcome” Russian airstrikes against ISIS inside his country as well.
Obama administration officials contend that the Russian airstrikes in Syria, which began on September 30, have targeted predominantly non-ISIS targets – including opposition groups which the West has supported – and appear to have the primary purpose of shoring up Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Secretary of State John Kerry raised those concerns in a phone conversation with Lavrov on Friday, according to the State Department.
Russia says it wants to coordinate military actions in Syria with the U.S. and has requested information about the locations of ISIS installations as well as those of non-ISIS, anti-Assad rebels groups, but that the U.S. has been unwilling to provide it.
“We asked those who think to know better the situation ‘on the ground’ to tell us where are terrorists’ bases,” Lavrov said. “But so far, our partners from that coalition are not ready for it. We also asked to tell us where the non-terrorist – the so-called patriotic – opposition is active so that we could take this information into account in our action. Our partners don’t want to do that either.”
Russia recently established an intelligence-sharing center in Baghdad, together with Iraq, Iran and the Assad regime, with the declared aim of sharing information about ISIS. Lavrov said Monday Moscow would welcome other countries joining that effort.
“We invite all interested colleagues to join the work of the information center that we established in Baghdad together with the governments of Iraq, Syria and Iran,” he said.
Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said in Brussels last Thursday that the U.S. “will not agree to cooperate with Russia so long as they continue to pursue this misguided strategy” of attacking groups that were neither ISIS, Jabhat al-Nusra or “other terrorist organizations.”
Until Russia stops hitting those targets, Carter said in Rome one day earlier, any military-to-military discussions between the U.S. and Russia would be limited to “basic, technical discussions on professional safety procedures for our pilots flying about Syria – that’s it.”
In an interview with state-owned Rossiya-1 television, broadcast on Sunday, President Vladimir Putin decried the Americans’ reluctance to cooperate.
“I cannot see why, after all, if they really know the situation better and want to fight terrorism, they could share with us concrete locations where the terrorists are hiding out and have their command posts and arms and equipment depots,” he said. “What would be simpler than to give us targets?”
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