US should accept Russian offer to coordinate strikes on Jabhat al-Nusra
US-Russian joint action would be a step forward to defeat al-Qaeda affiliate; US rejects Russian bid to designate Ahrar al-Sham and Jaish al-Islam as terrorist groups; Nasrallah vows deeper commitment to Syria following death of top commander.
US should consider Russian offer
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu suggested May 19 that Russia and US-led coalition forces should undertake “joint action … to plan and conduct strikes against Jabhat al-Nusra, which does not support the cease-fire, as well as against convoys of arms and fighters crossing the Syrian-Turkish border.”
Jabhat al-Nusra Front is al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria and an outlier to the UN-mediated political talks and cessation of hostilities. The peace talks and cessation, including UN Security Council Resolution 2254, are the result of US-Russian collaboration and leadership, which has produced the best hope, to date, of ending the more than five-year war.
Shoigu’s offer is in line with UN Security Council authorities on Syria. There are numerous resolutions targeting Jabhat al-Nusra and penalizing parties that support it. Resolution 2254, for example, calls on “Member States to prevent and suppress terrorist acts committed specifically by Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as Da’esh), Al-Nusra Front (ANF), and all other individuals, groups, undertakings, and entities associated with al-Qaeda or ISIL, and other terrorist groups … and to eradicate the safe haven they have established over significant parts of Syria, and notes that the aforementioned cease-fire will not apply to offensive or defensive actions against these individuals, groups, undertakings and entities.”
