US Secretary of State John Kerry held talks with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin on the devastating Syrian conflict long into the night on 14 July. The Moscow talks occurred against a backdrop of the Russian-backed Syrian government’s offensive against the rebel-held city of Aleppo, despite the Syrian army’s announcement of a number of ceasefires in the past 10 days.
Talks covered the potential for closer military cooperation between the US and Russia against jihadist rebel groups such as ‘Islamic State’ and Al Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra. But the convoluted web of more than 1,000 rebel groups guarantees that categorizing “jihadist” and “moderate” groups is virtually impossible. (CONTINUED - 1074 WORDS)
