Morning Star.png US Turns Towards Russia in Isis Battle Fight the common threat, says Putin James Tweedie, The Morning Star, London, 19 November 2015 US President Barack Obama changed tack on Syria yesterday, calling Russia a "constructive partner" in peace talks. Speaking on the fringes of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) summit in the Philippines, Mr Obama signalled that the two powers might even co-operate in the war against Islamic State (Isis). "If we get a better understanding with Russia about the process for bringing an end to the Syrian civil war," he said, "that obviously opens up more opportunities for co-ordination." Speaking at the G20 summit in Turkey earlier this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin did not attack the US record in Syria. "It's not the right moment to judge who is better and who is worse," Mr Putin said. "Now it's necessary to look forward and pool efforts to fight the common threat." The apparent shift in US policy may be influenced by the Isis terrorist attacks on Paris and the Tuesday's announcement of a military alliance between Nato-member France and Russia. The French Defence Ministry said air force jets had blitzed the Syrian Isis stronghold of Raqqa again on Tuesday evening, hitting command posts. On the same day, Russian aircraft, including long-range strategic bombers, flew 127 sorties and hit 206 targets, while the US-led coalition said it had launched 20 sorties against 14 targets. French aircraft carrier the Charles de Gaulle, escorted by Royal Navy destroyer HMS Defender, is en route to the eastern Mediterranean to join operations there. And Turkey claimed it was taking steps to secure its border with Syria, saying it had killed one Isis militant trying to enter illegally on Tuesday. Turkey's government has been accused by Syria and Kurdish nationalists of aiding Isis. In a further sign of detente, President Bashar al-Assad received a letter of support from US Senator Richard Black on Tuesday. Mr Black, who represents Virginia in the US upper house, blamed the Syrian civil war on "foreign powers determined to force a puppet regime on Syria." He welcomed the Russian intervention and advances by the Syrian army. Meanwhile, the UN general assembly passed a resolution demanding that Israel respect security council resolution 497, passed in 1981, which calls for the end to its occupation of Syria's Golan Heights. From: <http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-8eac-US-turns-towards-Russia-in-Isis-b attle#.Vk1FgnYrK00> http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-8eac-US-turns-towards-Russia-in-Isis-ba ttle#.Vk1FgnYrK00 -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
