Washington (dpa): Russia has a responsibility to assist in efforts, alongside the United States, to defeat the Islamic State terrorist group and to create stability in Syria, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Wednesday, days ahead of the G20 summit.
Russia, "as a guarantor of the Assad regime and an early entrant into the Syrian conflict, has a responsibility to ensure that the needs of the Syrian people are met and that no faction in Syria illegitimately re-takes or occupies areas liberated from ISIS' or other terrorist groups' control," Tillerson said in a statement.
"Russia also has an obligation to prevent any further use of chemical weapons of any kind" by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime, he said.
Tillerson pointed to work the US and Russia already have undertaken in Syria as evidence that they could do more together.
"The United States and Russia certainly have unresolved differences on a number of issues, but we have the potential to appropriately coordinate in Syria in order to produce stability and serve our mutual security interests," he said.
The US is "prepared to explore" with Russia joint stability measures that could include "no-fly zones, on the ground ceasefire observers, and coordinated delivery of humanitarian assistance," Tillerson said.
"If our two countries work together to establish stability on the ground, it will lay a foundation for progress on the settlement of Syria's political future," he said.
US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are expected to discuss Syria, among other topics, in their first meeting on Friday.
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