Putin’s gambit puts US on back foot

NEW YORK: Russia’s President Vladimir Putin launched a new coalition to battle the Islamic State in Syria on Sunday, as he prepared to confront US rival Barack Obama at the United Nations.
The dramatic diplomatic gambit underlined how Russia has seized the initiative on Syria, as US Secretary of State John Kerry met his counterpart Sergei Lavrov to express his concerns.
Putin and Obama are to make duelling speeches on Monday before the United Nations General Assembly in New York, and will come face-to-face in a private meeting at a time of high drama.
But even as the diplomatic playing pieces are coming into place, the facts on the ground are shifting, with Iraq confirming that it is to share intelligence with Russia, Iran and Syria.
The United States has built its own coalition of mainly Arab and Western countries to fight the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, but Russia is taking another course. As Kerry began talks with Lavrov on the sidelines of the UN meeting, he urged Russia not to go it alone.
”I think the critical thing is that all of the efforts need to be coordinated. This is not yet coordinated,” he said. ”I think we have concerns about how we are going to go forward. That is precisely what we are meeting on to talk about now.”
Washington has demanded that Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad step down, but Putin’s rival alliance with Shiite-led states will instead shore up the beleaguered government in Damascus.
Western powers say Assad’s military is responsible for the vast majority of the 240,000 deaths in the four-year war, but Putin said there is only “one legitimate conventional army” in Syria.