Kushner back channel with Russia involved Syria policy: source

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s son-inlaw and now top White House adviser Jared Kushner proposed a secret back channel between the Kremlin and the Trump transition team during a December meeting with a leading Russian diplomat.

Kushner spoke with Ambassador Sergey Kislyak about creating that line of communication to facilitate sensitive discussions aimed at exploring the incoming administration’s options with Russia as it was developing its Syria policy, according to a person familiar with the discussions who spoke with the Associated Press.

The intent was to connect Trump’s chief national security adviser at the time, Michael Flynn, with Russian military leaders, said this person, who wasn’t authorized to publicly discuss private policy deliberations and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Russia, a pivotal player in Syria, has backed Syrian President Bashar Assad, often at the expense of civilians during a long civil war.

The White House did not acknowledge the meeting or Kushner’s attendance until March, when a White House official called it a courtesy meeting.

Kushner’s involvement in the proposed back channel was first reported by the Washington Post, which said he proposed using Russian diplomatic facilities for the discussions, apparently to make them more difficult to monitor.

The newspaper cited anonymous U.S. officials who were briefed on intelligence reports on intercepted Russian communications.

The Post wrote that Kislyak was reportedly taken aback by the suggestion of allowing an American to use Russian communications gear at its embassy or consulate — a proposal that would have carried security risks for Moscow as well as the Trump team.

According to the person familiar with the Kushner meeting, the Trump team eventually felt there was no need for a back channel once Rex Tillerson was confirmed as secretary of state, and decided to communicate with Moscow through more official channels. Tillerson was sworn in on Feb. 1.

Flynn served briefly as Trump’s national security adviser before being fired in February after officials said he misled Vice-President Mike Pence about whether he and the ambassador had discussed U.S. sanctions against Russia in a phone call.

Sally Yates, the former acting attorney general, told Congress this month that that deception left Flynn vulnerable to being blackmailed. Flynn is under federal investigation in Virginia over his foreign business ties and was interviewed by the FBI in January about his contacts with Kislyak.

The disclosure of the back channel put White House advisers on the defensive Saturday, as Trump wrapped up his first foreign trip as president, and led lawyers for Kushner to say he is willing to talk with federal and congressional investigators about his foreign contacts and his work on the Trump campaign.

BEIRUT — Syrian troops and allied militia have pushed back Islamic State militants and U.S-backed opposition fighters, gaining control of a large swath of territory in the country’s southern desert, the government-controlled media and a war monitor said Saturday.

Also Saturday, the U.S.-led coalition leading the campaign against the Islamic State group in Syria’s northeast, acknowledged it conducted airstrikes near the IS-controlled town of Mayadeen last week, targeting the group’s “propaganda facilities.”

In a statement emailed to the Associated Press, the U.S.-led coalition said it is looking into reports the airstrikes killed more than two dozen civilians, but added the claims were “unsubstantiated” and lacked “specificity or evidence.”

With the new advances, the government and allied troops secured an area nearly half the size of neighbouring Lebanon. The strategic juncture in the Syrian desert aids government plans to go after IS in Deir el-Zour, one of the militants’ last major strongholds in Syria. The oil-rich province straddles the border with Iraq and is the group’s last gate to the outside world.

The government and its allies have restored government control over mineral and oil resources, including the phosphate mines in Khneifes, once controlled by IS.

The state-controlled Syrian Central Military media said the new advances secured about 5,000 square kilometres in the desert area, widening the government’s control south of Palmyra in Homs province and the highway linking the city to the capital Damascus. The area was the backyard of territories once controlled by IS militants — linking Palmyra, the Jordanian border area, the IS de-facto capital Raqqa, and the oil-rich Deir el-Zour.

The large swath of desert, parts of which were in rebel hands, also abuts the Damascus and its suburbs. With their new gains, the government and allied forces have successfully isolated anti-government rebel fighters in the desert area east of Damascus, denying them advances toward the strategic Homs desert area.