US to offer Russia anti-terror pact in Syria

The United States is to offer to cooperate with Russia in joint military action against the Al-Nusra Front and Islamic State extremist groups in Syria, the Washington Post reported yesterday.

US Secretary of State John Kerry, who was on his way to Moscow for talks with President Vladimir Putin, did not deny the report, but refused to discuss the proposal in detail until he had been to the Kremlin.

According to the Post, which cited sections of what it said was a draft agreement, US and Russian commanders would set up a joint command and control centre to direct intensified air strikes against the jihadist groups.

Currently, Russian forces in Syria are operating in support of President Bashar al-Assad's regime against a variety of rebel factions while a US-led coalition focuses its fire on the Islamic State group.

Any deal between the great power rivals would be controversial, since for many it would amount to a tacit acceptance of Putin's efforts to shore up Assad's regime. According to the Post, Kerry was to propose to Putin that Russia and the United States set up a "Joint Implementation Group" or JIG to "enable extended coordination" between their militaries on the Syrian battlefields.

The report came as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad yesterday said he has never faced pressure from Russia to step aside.

Speaking to NBC News in Damascus, Assad insisted his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had never raised the issue of his departure or a political transition.

"Only the Syrian people define who's going to be the president, when to come, and when to go," he said.