Syrian forces reportedly using new Russian weapons as US OKs talks

Meanwhile, US Secretary of Defence Ashton Carter spoke on Friday with Russia’s Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu over the phone on areas where “perspectives overlap and areas of divergence”, the Pentagon announced.

In fact the West, in the form of the US , several European Union countries and some Arab states, already functions as an anti-IS coalition conducting air raids, giving military advice, and training and arming moderate anti-IS forces such as the Kurdish Peshmerga.

Washington and its North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies broke off ties with the Russian military in April past year in protest at Moscow’s intervention in Ukraine.

Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said that the talks were “constructive”.

The State Department said Kerry told Lavrov that solving the Syrian conflict requires “a political transition away from Assad”. The ministers noted the restoration of contacts between the countries’ defense ministries and agreed to continue consultations.

President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman said Moscow would consider any request for troops from ally Assad, comments likely to heighten Washington’s security concerns.

“Obviously the focus remains on destroying ISIL and also on a political settlement with respect to Syria which we believe can not be achieved with a long-term presence of Assad but we are looking for ways in which to try and find a common ground”, he said.

“The U.S. Senate’s armed services committee on 16 September grilled top Pentagon officials over how they plan to deal with the Syrian regime, an issue Washington is forced to confront with Moscow’s escalating military support for President Bashar al-Assad, the Journal writes”.

His Syrian counterpart, Wallid al-Muallem, said on Thursday that he couldn’t “confirm or deny” reports that Russian officers, experts, pilots and drones have arrived at the airport in Latakia, according to state-run SANA news service.

Russian Federation has been sending about two military cargo flights a day to an air base at Latakia on the government-controlled Syrian coast, United States of America officials say. “We have been all along but the migration levels and continued destruction, the danger of potential augmentation by any unilateral moves puts a high premium on diplomacy at this moment”, he added.

The Cold War foes have a common enemy in IS, also known as ISIL, in Syria – but the U.S. opposes Russia’s support of Mr Assad.

But, with Western efforts to tackle the Islamic State group floundering, and the moderate Syrian opposition losing ground to radicals, the U.S. officials have suggested Russian Federation may have a role to play in the fight.