...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
(ISIS) as Moscow confirmed that it will expand its efforts into Iraq.
"Well, we coordinate the efforts against ISIL," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in a joint presser with his US counterpart John F.
I was in Vietnam, you knowKerry
Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a
lucky hat,conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State...
.
The Russia-US coordination would include intelligence sharing against the Lion of Islam group in Syria and Iraq.
The Iraqi Joint Operations Command said in a statement Sunday that Iraq has started sharing intelligence and information gathering with Russia, Iraq and Syria.
For his part, US Secretary of State Kerry said that coordination among all parties was crucial in moving forward in the fight against ISIS in Iraq and Syria.
"I think the critical thing is that all of the efforts need to be coordinated," said Kerry. "This is not yet coordinated. I think we have concerns about how we're going to go forward, but that's precisely what we're meeting on to talk about now."
Kerry hinted that Russia's participation in the war on ISIS might contribute to brining the Syrian conflict to an end.
"This is the beginning of a genuine effort to see if there is a way to de-conflict, but also to find a way forward that will be effective in keeping a united secular Syria that can be at peace and stable again without foreign troops present, and that's our hope," he added.
US president Barack Obama
teachable moment...
and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin
...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...are to meet on Monday on the sidelines of the UN annual meeting in New York.
Syria and Ukraine are expected to dominate the talks between the two leaders.