U.S. WILL OFFER TO CO-OPERATE WITH RUSSIA

WASHINGTON The Obama administration is taking what might be its final offer to Moscow: Enhanced intelligence and military co-operation against ISIL and other extremist groups if Syria’s President Bashar Assad upholds a ceasefire with U.S.supported rebel groups and begins a political transition.

When Secretary of State John Kerry meets Russia’s top diplomat and possibly President Vladimir Putin in Moscow later this week, he will try to reverse a trend in which he has hailed a series of agreements with the Russians only for them to fall short, according to officials with knowledge of internal American deliberations.