Kerry’s Syria Offer The Secretary of State has a new sweetener for Vladimir Putin.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/kerrys-syria-offer-1468623558
Kerry: U.S. Will Meet Fiscal Year Goal of ‘Welcoming 10,000 Syrian Refugees’By Bridget Johnson
John Kerry was in Moscow this week, where he invoked Thursday’s terror attack in Nice to press the need to broker an end to the civil war in Syria. “Nowhere is there a greater hotbed or incubator for these terrorist than in Syria,” he said, and on that score he’s right. Too bad another bad deal with Russia isn’t likely to achieve that goal.
The Administration wants the Kremlin to force Syrian dictator Bashar Assad to ground his air force, which continues to use barrel bombs and chemical munitions against civilian targets in rebel-held areas. In exchange, Mr. Kerry is offering Russia enhanced intelligence cooperation, including target coordinates for Russian bombers to attack Islamic State and the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front. Longer term, Mr. Kerry wants Russia to help ease Assad out of power as part of an overall political settlement for Syria.
That might be a reasonable bargain—if only Vladimir Putin had any record of abiding by previous commitments. The Russian president deployed his air force to Syria last year after spending four years blocking every effort at the United Nations to censure the Assad regime. From the beginning his planes have bombed marketplaces, pediatric hospitals, Turkmen villages and other non-ISIS targets in areas besieged by regime forces.
In June the U.S. had to scramble F-18s after Russian planes bombed U.S.-backed rebels in an area near Jordan where a cease-fire was supposed to be in force. The Russians returned for a second round of bombing after the Hornets ran low on fuel and departed. Moscow has repeatedly ignored cease-fire efforts and remains very much engaged in helping Assad crush his enemies, four months after Mr. Putin announced his supposed immediate departure from the country. CONTINUE AT SITE
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