The United States and Russia reached an agreement on Friday night that could see the two country’s militaries working together to take on ISIS within Syria. The agreement was announced in Geneva, Switzerland by Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, after weeks of tense negotiations.
The new arrangement is supposed to begin Monday in Syria, with a seven-day-long continuous “genuine reduction of violence,” in Mr. Kerry’s words, and broad, unrestricted humanitarian access to the ravaged northern city of Aleppo and other besieged areas.
If that works for the initial period, the United States and Russia are supposed to immediately establish a Joint Implementation Center, where they will share targeting data, and begin to bomb militants of the Nusra Front and Islamic State.
The key element is that Russia is then supposed to restrain the forces of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria from conducting any air operations over Nusra and opposition areas, which the United States hopes will bring an end to the dropping of barrel bombs, including chlorine gas attacks.
In return, the United States is supposed to get the opposition groups it has been supporting to separate themselves from Nusra forces. Mr. Assad has attacked many of them on the pretense of attacking Nusra.
Amusing side note: The Washington Post notes that Sergei Lavrov attempted to score “some propaganda points” with the media attending the press conference where the agreement was announced by providing them with pizza and bottles of vodka. John Kerry just brought his magnetic charisma and totally likable face.
