The Obama administration won’t rule out cooperating with Russian forces against the Islamic State in Syria, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Wednesday, after Russian aircraft launched their first bombing mission in that country.
“I think it’s hard to prejudge at this point exactly what those conversations will look like,” he said. “I certainly wouldn’t rule out any coordination. We would welcome Russian coordination.”
But Earnest noted that the administration’s first priority was to get talks started between military leaders of the two countries to ensure that there’s no conflicts between forces operating separately in the same space. On the orders of Defense Secretary Ash Carter, U.S. military leaders had opened discussions with their Russian counterparts on how those talks could take place, but the formal discussions had not begun before Russian airstrikes began.
But there’s a potential wrinkle in the possibility that U.S. and Russian forces could collaborate: A Pentagon official said the Russian airstrikes were not targeting the Islamic State, as Moscow had said it would do, because they were near the city of Homs, where the extremist group has no fighters.
“We just know that it’s by deduction not ISIL,” one official said. “ISIL is not in Homs, they’re striking Homs, therefore it’s not ISIL.”
The official said a Russian general walked across the street to the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad Wednesday morning to say the Russians would begin bombing an hour before the airstrikes were launched. The general’s request that coalition aircraft remain clear of the airspace over all of Syria was rejected, and airstrikes continued Wednesday as far west as Aleppo.
Earnest said “it’s too early for me to share any conclusions with you” about what Russia’s intentions are with its airstrikes in Syria, noting that this is one of the reasons why the White House has put a priority on getting deconfliction talks started.
“We have sought a Russian contribution to our counter-[Islamic State] campaign that’s constructive,” he said. “We certainly wouldn’t want Russian military operations to come into conflict with that effort.”
But he rejected the idea that U.S. officials were surprised by the Russian move, saying it was a logical consequence of their military buildup inside Syria.
“I don’t think it’s particularly surprising that Russia is using those new military capabilities … to prop up the Assad regime,” he said.
