MESOP “THE KERRY/LAVROV TWINS”: Kerry & Lavrov Renew Talks on US Plan for Cooperation

by Scott Lucas – 26 July 2016 – eaworldview – US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov renewed talks on Tuesday about an American plan for US-Russian military cooperation inside Syria. The two men met on the sidelines of a meeting of Southeast Asian nations in Laos, 11 days after they spent eight hours in Moscow on the US plan — endorsed by President Obama — for intelligence sharing and cooperation on airstrikes against the Islamic State and the jihadists of Jabhat al-Nusra.

No information was given about the substance of Tuesday’s discussion.

Obama and Kerry say the proposal will include Russian pressure on the Assad regime to halt its bombing of rebels and opposition areas, and to persuade President Assad to return to talks for a resolution of Syria’s 5 1/2-year conflict. However, critics — including officials within the Obama Administration — say the Russians have not abided by any agreements since they began thousands of airstrikes last September, destroying infrastructure with the documented killing of 2,141 civilians. They note that the Assad regime effectively collapsed the Geneva political process, brokered by the US and Russia, in April with continued bombing and sieges and with President Assad’s refusal of a transitional governing authority.

Since Kerry’s meetings in Moscow on July 14-15 with Lavrov and President Vladimir Putin, Russian and Syrian airstrikes in the past week have killed hundreds of civilians. Last weekend, five field hospitals and a blood bank were damaged or destroyed by the attacks. www.mesop.de