The State Department said Wednesday that it rejects Russia’s latest effort to get two groups of Syrian rebels designated as terrorist entities subject to international sanctions.
Russia is making a push this week to get two groups, Jaish al-Islam and Ahrar al-Sham, listed as entities that are subject to United Nations sanctions the same as other terrorist groups. Overseas reports said the U.S., France, Britain and others rejected that idea earlier Wednesday.
The dispute shows the continued difficulty of getting the U.S. and Russia to work with each other in light of their different goals. The U.S. has said for months that Russia seems more interested in propping up the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad, while the U.S. has said repeatedly that Assad must go.
State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said Wednesday that the U.S. doesn’t support Russia’s latest effort.
“We do note the reports that Russia’s proposed placing … Jaish al-Islam and Ahrar al-Sham, on the UN sanctions list that includes ISIL, the al Qaeda linked terrorist group,” she said.
“Russia is publicly attempting to designate groups that are parties to the cessation of hostilities,” she added. “Such actions, we continue to believe, would have damaging consequences to the cessation, just as we are trying to de-escalate the situation on the ground.”
Trudeau said the U.S. opposes Russia’s move both because the groups are part of the cessation talks, but also because it disagrees with Russia’s assessment that the groups deserve sanctions.
“We believe that they’re still covered under the cessation,” she said. “We disagree with that assessment at this time.”
