US ready for talks on Syria

The United States plans to accept Moscow’s offer for ‘‘military-tomilitary’’ talks on the crisis in Syria as alarm mounts over a Russian military buildup there and the scale of Western failures in the war against Islamic State fighters.

US officials want to know why Russian military supplies and personnel are being built up at a government base in Latakia, northern Syria.

Russia insists it is seeking to confront the threat posed by Isis, and has urged Washington and its allies to join it in that fight.

However, there are concerns that Moscow’s first priority is to ensure the survival of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

The Russian foreign ministry yesterday said its military support for Damascus was aimed at preserving the Syrian state, not the regime, in the face of the Isis threat, and preventing a ‘‘total catastrophe’’ in the region.

The statement came amid the strongest signs yet that the US strategy in Syria is nearing collapse.

The US general in charge of the fight against Isis admitted this week that only ‘‘four or five’’ graduates of a US training programme for Syrian rebels remained in the fight against Isis.

The US$500 million (NZ$785m) Pentagon programme, which was launched in May, was intended to train 5400 Syrian fighters a year for three years.

It swiftly ran into difficulties, in part because of anger among potential recruits over Washington’s insistence that they could not use their weapons or training against Assad’s forces.

The first 54 graduates entered Syria in July but were quickly attacked by al Qaeda’s Syrian offshoot, the Nusra Front, and either fled or were killed.

The revelations provoked incredulity among senators on Capitol Hill.

The Times