Any military or intelligence cooperation between the US and Russia to strike targets in Syria would include measures to ensure US operational security and would not be based on trust, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine General Joseph Dunford said.
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Any military or intelligence cooperation between the US and Russia to strike targets in Syria would include measures to ensure US operational security and would not be based on trust, Reuters reported on Monday, citing a top US military official.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said on July 22 that he is going to discuss an American proposal for closer military cooperation and intelligence sharing on Syria at the meeting with his Russian counterpart, which will be held in the coming days.
The proposal includes ways in which the US and Russia would prohibit the Syrian air force from attacking moderate rebel groups and share intelligence to coordinate air strikes against the al Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front.
Top American military and intelligence officials have met the proposal with deep skepticism.
“We are not entering into a transaction that is founded on trust,” the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine General Joseph Dunford said during a news conference with US Defense Secretary Ash Carter.
“There will be specific procedures and processes in any transaction we might have with the Russians that will account for protecting our operational security.”
According to Carter, the basis of the negotiations that Kerry is having with the Russians is “mutual interest to the extent and when and as we are able to identify that with the Russians.”
According to many US officials, sharing intelligence with Russia could risk revealing US intelligence sources, capabilities and methods.
