I'm going to Moscow, meeting with President Putin tonight, and we'll have plenty of time to talk about it." Currently, Russian forces in Syria are operating in support of Bashar al-Assad's regime against a variety of rebel factions while a US-led coalition focuses its fire on the Islamic State jihadist group. But, while the Islamic State's so-called "caliphate" has global ambitions, Al-Nusra - an affiliate of Al-Qaeda - has concentrated on battling Assad, fighting alongside other rebel groups backed by US allies. According to the Post, Kerry was to propose to Putin that Russia and the United States set up a "Joint Implementation Group" or JIG to "enable extended coordination" between their militaries on the Syrian battlefields. Any deal between Russia and the United States to fight both groups would in effect strengthen Assad's position, and could undermine US efforts to press him to agree a negotiated political settlement to the civil war.

Source: dna July 14, 2016 10:30 UTC