Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Tuesday that the U.S. does not have any immediate plans to engage in joint operations with Russia in Syria.
“We will not be doing anything additional until the Secretary of State and the president have further figured out at what point we are going to start working alongside our allies with Russia in the future,” Mattis said alongside Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Australian defense officials at the Australia-United States Ministerial Consultation in California.
Mattis added that since Pompeo and President Trump have not worked out a timeline for working with Russia as of yet, it would be “premature” for him to go into detail regarding Russia-U.S. cooperation in Syria.
Russia claimed that Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed on a plan to cooperate in a joint effort with Syria during their first bilateral meeting in Helsinki earlier this month.
