Obama rejects Putin’s offer to send emissaries to U.S. to confer on Syria
By Dave Boyer - The Washington Times - Wednesday, October 14, 2015
The Obama administration has rejected an offer by Russian President Vladimir Putin to send a high-level delegation to Washington to coordinate military action in war-torn Syria, where Moscow’s forces are fighting to prop up the regime of President Bashar Assad.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Wednesday that Moscow offered to send Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and a delegation to the U.S. “to agree on a number of joint steps” over Syria, where American and Russian military planes are flying in the same airspace as the U.S.-led coalition attacks the Islamic State terrorist group. He said the plan also would have included a delegation of U.S. military experts traveling to Moscow.
“We have been told it is not possible to send the delegation to Moscow as well as to receive the delegation in Washington,” Mr. Lavrov said.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Moscow’s offer was a sign of Mr. Putin’s “desperation.”
“We’re not interested in doing that, as long as Russia is not willing to make a constructive contribution to our counter-ISIL effort,” said Mr. Earnest, using an acronym for the Islamic State. “Russia has their own agenda and it’s an agenda right now that they’re pursuing on their own. So it’s not particularly surprising to me that President Putin would resort, in some desperation, to try to send the second-highest ranking official in the Russian government to the United States to try to convince us to join them. But the fact is that is a request that’s fallen on deaf ears.”
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/oct/14/obama-rejects-putins-offer-send-emissaries-us-conf/
