No plans to coordinate Syrian strike with Russian Federation: Pentagon

COL. WARREN: Yeah, we’re – right now, we have no plans to do that.

On Tuesday, Russia’s fleet of 25 long-range bombers joined Su-34, Su-25, and Su-24M warplanes conducting operations in Syria to double the number of airstrikes against the militants.

“This joint work will begin after the arrival of aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle to the Syrian shores”, Kartapolov explained. More talks would be held with Moscow, he said. Overall, Russian warplanes flew 126 combat sorties Wednesday, and on Thursday, more than 100 sorties are to be flown, Kartapolov said.

British United Nations Ambassador Matthew Rycroft, president of the council for November, said on Thursday the shorter French draft focused on areas of the fight against Islamic State on which the Security Council could agree.

“We combine these leaflet drops with very low altitude passes of a few of our attack aviation, which sends a very powerful message”, Army Col. Steve Warren, a spokesman for Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve, said in Wednesday from Baghdad during a teleconference at the Pentagon.

One Russian official said there was consensus at last weekend’s G20 summit in Turkey on the need to target Islamic State, though no breakthrough with the U.S. yet.

Gerasimov said the Paris attacks and the downing of the Russian plane in Egypt are “links of the same chain”, adding that “our anger and our grief should help Russia and France unite their efforts in the fight against worldwide terrorism”. A USA official says Russian Federation is newly receptive to cooperation in Syria. But he also said, “we are still working through with Russian Federation and Iran the question of al-Assad and his role”.

Russia, which views Syria as its closest Middle East ally, has been at odds with Western powers over the future of Assad.

In other words: The United States demands Russia’s assurance that Assad will be removed from power, or else the USA will provide whatever assistance is necessary to bring to power in Syria whatever jihadists can do the job of removing him, because his non-sectarian and decidedly secular government is “pouring gasoline on the fire” there, and because it is “backwards”, not forward-looking, like a Syrian government controlled by U.S-approved jihadists would be.