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July 15th, 2016 
Awake Goy 
nsnbc : Talks between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian President Vladimir Putin have broken the ice the political stalemate and laid the foundation for a better understanding and closer cooperation. Major differences do, however, remain.
Photo courtesy of TASS, Mikhail Metzel
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov commented on the meeting between Kerry and Putin, describing the talks as constructive. Peskov added, however, that questions remain on cooperation between the two countries on Syria. Peskov described the meeting that ended well after midnight as “constructive, rather honest and detailed”. Kerry, for his part, also described the talks as “extremely frank and very serious”.
While several media, especially Russia Today, prior to the had made allegations about “leaked information” about direct military cooperation, Peskov noted that the topic of direct interaction between the Russian and US military in Syria was not discussed as the meeting. He added: “They discussed different cooperation formats, but the topic of direct cooperation between the military in combating terrorism in Syria was not mentioned”.
Peskov noted, however, that the exchange of information in this area is “present” but still, unfortunately, the two sides have not come closer to real cooperation in order to increase the effectiveness of efforts to combating terrorism in Syria.
One of the points of contention is that the United States describes groups like Jaish al-Islam and Ahrar al-Sham as subgroups of ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusrah, who both have been designated as terrorist organizations by the UN Security Council. Moscow and Washington disagree on whether or not they constitute legitimate military targets. The U.S. State Department would admit that fighters of organizations who are part of the ceasefire “intermingle” with ISIS and Al-Nusrah and that the vetting process is “complicated”. It is noteworthy that Jaish-al-Islam is a successor organization of Liwa-al-Islam, the organization that was responsible for the chemical weapons attack on East Ghouta in August 2013.
While the United States had down toned its “Assad must go” rhetoric, it continues to pursue a policy and strategy that aims at the overthrow of the Syrian President. Peskov noted that the positions of the USA and Russia have remained unchanged and that: “As for Assad’s fate, Russia’s well-known position has not undergone any changes”. He added that Russia favors the continuation of the talks on the Syrian settlement and that the political solution to this crisis is only possible by means of continuing the Geneva process.
The meeting between Kerry and Putin has been one of the rare bilateral meetings since the eruption of the crisis in and around Ukraine in 2014 and signals according to many analysts, increased willingness from both sides to tackle complex issues about Ukraine and the Middle East politically.
F/AK – nsnbc 15.07.2016
Source Article from http://nsnbc.me/2016/07/15/russia-and-usa-closer-to-cooperation-on-syria-after-kerry-visited-moscow/
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