US Refuses To Share Intel With Russia On Islamic State Unless Changes Stance On Assad

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Washington will not share intelligence data on Islamic State positions in Syria and will not accept Moscow’s offer to cooperate on rooting out terrorism until Moscow changes its position on Syrian President Bashar Assad’s future, the Pentagon said, according to RT.

Ever since the start of the Russian campaign in Syria in late September, Moscow has been offering to share information with the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), urging Washington to reciprocate. After months of extensive diplomatic efforts by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Defense, and the Kremlin, the Pentagon is still refusing to enter the proposed cooperation.

“We are not going to cooperate with Russia on Syria until they change their strategy of supporting Assad and instead focus on ISIL,” U.S. Defense Department Spokesperson Lt. Col. Michelle Baldanza told Sputnik on Friday.

Moscow has persistently insisted throughout the course of the Syrian conflict that it is only up to the Syrian people to decide who governs them. Russia has repeatedly spoken out against foreign intervention in the domestic affairs of any country, including Syria.

Washington and their Middle Eastern allies do not consider the elected president of Syria to be a legitimate authority and want him gone, claiming only his unconditional departure can ignite a political process in the war-torn country.

However, recently Washington has softened its rhetoric, saying that Assad might play a certain role in the “transitional period” while “how and when he goes” is being decided.

PanARMENIAN

PanARMENIAN Network is the first Armenian online news and analytical agency and one of the most cited Armenian informational resources worldwide.

One thought on “US Refuses To Share Intel With Russia On Islamic State Unless Changes Stance On Assad

  • December 27, 2015 at 10:44 am
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    Washington’s rhetoric is but a way of hiding that the US is not seriously fighting ISIS. It is clear now from various documents that became available via freedom of information act procedures that the US planned and practiced – i.e. trained rebels in Jordan to act as US proxies in toppling Assad – the incitement of protests in Syria to destabilize Syria and topple Assad since 2006. It is also clear from said documents and from a script by a Washington think tank that the US intends to use ISIS via the intermediary of Turkey to destabilize both Russia and China. The first group of ISIS fighters meanwhile were transported to eastern Afghanistan in the corner where to borders on Pakistan, Tajikistan and Xinjiang. Given the refusal by the US to release Uighur detainees right away from Guantanamo once their innocence was established, it is also clear that the US used those people as contact persons and intermediaries with Uighurs in Xinjiang. Once a more solid connection was established, the said Uighurs were then released to far away islands to hide the real purpose they played. The current refusal by Washington to cooperate with Russia in the battle against ISIS and the US indifference against ISIS smuggling Syrian oil to Turkey via Iraq makes it clear that it is using Russia’s different standpoint vis a vis Assad as a pretext to hide its complicity with ISIS.

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