Putin seeks partners to fight jihadists

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in the interview, with the U.S. networks CBS and PBS, released on Sunday that he was seeking partners to set up a “coordinated framework” to stamp out the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.

“We have proposed to cooperate with the countries in the region. We are trying to establish some kind of coordinated framework. We would welcome a common platform for collective action against the terrorists,” he said.

Putin said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad deserved international support as he was fighting terrorist organisations. Putin said he had personally informed the kings of Saudi Arabia and Jordan of his plan and that he had also informed the United States.

‘U.S. policy illegal’

In the interview, recorded ahead of a meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday, Putin sharply criticised U.S. military support for Syrian rebels, describing it as illegal and useless.

He said U.S.-trained rebels were leaving to join the Islamic State with weapons supplied by Washington.

Putin made a point of noting the Pentagon’s recent admission that an effort to train 5,000 Syrian rebels had yielded only four or five fighters.

Putin reasserted Russia’s view that Assad’s forces were fighting the Islamic State and stressed “there is only one legitimate conventional army” in Syria.