Russian Federation sends jets to Syria, resumes U.S. talks

Kerry said any military-to-military meeting would be “to deconflict with respect to any potential risks that might be run” – in other words to prevent the forces from running into one another.

“The secretary and the minister talked about areas where the United States and Russia’s perspectives overlap and areas of divergence”, the Pentagon said in a statement Friday.

A senior USA official said Shoigu told Carter that Russia’s increased military activities are defensive in nature, and designed to honor Moscow’s commitments to the Assad government.

Arrival of the fighters was “the culmination of what we’ve observed for weeks now”, said one USA official, who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

Indeed, Russian Federation has sent four Su-27 fighter jets to the new air base the country in constructing near Latakia.

The strikes could not be confirmed, but the US embassy in Syria on its Twitter account that “The Assad regime’s brutal attacks on #Syria’s cities continue to kill innocent Syrians and destroy schools, mosques, markets, and hospitals”.

At the White House, spokesman Josh Earnest raised the prospect of possible Russian contributions to the campaign against Islamic State.

In another apparent concession, Kerry stated explicitly that the USA could accept a resolution to the Syrian war that allowed President Bashar Assad to remain in place for a time before departing, as the US long has wanted.

“The president believes that a military-to-military conversation is an important next step”, US Secretary of State Kerry said Friday, just hours before Carter’s phone call.

Moscow’s moves in Syria set the stage for Russian president Vladimir Putin’s address to the United Nations general assembly on 28 September, probably shifting some attention away from Ukraine and toward the conflict in Syria.

Russian Federation insists that its support for Assad is geared towards fighting terrorism, and pushing back against the the so-called Islamic State (IS), a mutual enemy of the USA , Assad, and Russian Federation .

“Up to now there is no joint combat on the ground with Russian forces, but if we need them we will look into it and ask”, Foreign Minister Walid Muallem told state television.

But Moscow has also sought to portray Assad’s army as a bulwark against Islamist rebels, including IS, which has seized a vast swathe of eastern Syria and northern Iraq and declared a so-called “caliphate”.

The Pentagon has consistently said Carter has not spoken to Shoygu since the two countries suspended military-to-military relations after Russian Federation annexed Crimea in 2013.