Russian Federation and Jordan to Coordinate Military Actions in Syria

Al-Jubeir spoke to reporters before attending a Friday meeting with his American, Russian and Turkish counterparts: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Turkish Foreign Minister Feridun Sinirlioglu.

It remains unclear whether they will be able to resolve their competing interests and goals in the country’s civil war.

Syrian President Assad is the problem and not the solution where the crisis in Syria is concerned, French President François Hollande said on Friday, revealing different views among European countries concerning the fate of the Syrian president. On September 30, Russian Federation began precision airstrikes on ISIL positions in Syria at Assad’s request.

“The administration’s a little bit in wait-and-see mode”, said CBS News Senior National Security Analyst Juan Zarate.

At first, the week seemed like it might yield a few positive developments. That was particularly important because both countries are carrying out airstrikes in Syria.

The diplomatic bust-up included a Saudi threat to supply more weapons to Western-backed rebel forces in Syria that oppose the regime of Bashar al-Assad, Syria’s president.

Mr. Assad met with Mr. Putin on Tuesday in Moscow to discuss the Syrian conflict.

Putin pledged to continue to support Damascus militarily, while calling for a political solution involving all groups to try to end the war, the Kremlin said. Putin also criticized NATO’s deployment of missile defense systems in East Europe, saying that the decision has fostered instability in the region.

Zarate said the meeting contained multiple messages for the wider world.

Second, Putin won’t give up Assad to entice the Sunni opposition to the negotiating table.

“The main risk for Israel is not Assad but chaos” amid Syria’s bloody civil war of the past four-plus years, Ksenia Svetlova, a Moscow-born Israeli Labor party lawmaker, told JTA.

Russian Federation believes that resolving the crisis in Syria will not meet success without Iran’s partnership, Putin said on Thursday, noting that any collaboration excluding Iran will not be sustainable.

“The minister added that he had offered the United States and Saudi Arabia to make use of the new Russian-Jordanian coordination mechanism”. Discussing the meeting while traveling in Germany Thursday, Kerry said his “hope is that realities will mandate responsible choices”.

“There is only one thing – happens to be a person – that stands in the way of unified principles on which we agree. We have always supported and keep supporting only the legitimate authorities”, he wrote on his Facebook page. It should be secular.

Syria’s destiny should be decided by its citizens who will choose their country’s leadership, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has said. That situation, Kerry said, “has to be resolved”, suggesting political talks could patch up the differences.

Saudi Arabia has called for Assad’s departure, but its foreign minister said Monday he could retain power until a transitional government was set up.

“We are now thinking about this and are trying, if it works out, to reach these agreements”, said Putin. “So my hope is that these talks can begin a process that could open up a greater discussion”. The official described them as “akin to a Delta Force”, the U.S. Army’s elite counterterrorism unit.

But southeast of the city, where the Islamic State has a strong presence, the group said it had advanced on a major road linking Aleppo to the central provinces of Hama and Homs.

Stephens added: “I would expect a military response by a large upscale of backing for rebel factions that are fighting against the regime, with both anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles”.