Carter: US testing Russia to do 'right thing' in Syria

Ashton Carter, the US defence secretary, on Thursday called on Russia to do the “right thing” in Syria and said that the two countries’ military could not cooperate while Moscow was fuelling the country’s civil war.

Speaking to BBC radio’s Today Programme, Carter said there was still a long way to go in Washington’s efforts to negotiate a “true cessation of hostilities”.

“We are going to put to the test the idea that Russia can begin to do the right thing in Syria,” he said.

What it said when it came into Syria was that it was going to fight terrorism and try to end the civil war through a political transition. That is not what it has done. It has fuelled the civil war and the violence there and has not helped us progress towards a political solution that would have [Syrian President] Bashar al-Assad step aside and a new government including the moderate opposition take over.

Asked about the prospect of US-Russian military cooperation against the Islamic State group, Carter said that the countries had worked together in Bosnia and elsewhere in the 1990s.

But he added: “In the current circumstances it’s not possible for the United States to associate itself with, let alone cooperate in, a venture that is only fuelling violence and civil war and not heading towards ending it.”

Carter said a true cessation of hostilities, including an end to Syrian government air strikes and the use of barrel bombs and chlorine shells, would be the starting point for any future agreement between Washington and Moscow.