Clinton wants Russia ‘at the table’ on Syria

by Jesse Byrnes - 12/01/15 8:58 AM ET

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton says she would like to see Russia involved as much as possible on the situation in Syria.

In an interview aired Tuesday on “CBS This Morning,” the former secretary of State suggested “bringing the Russians in” on the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

She noted ISIS’s claim of responsibility for downing a Russian passenger jet in late October.

{mosads}”They’ve lost people to ISIS, right? I think you say, ‘Look, we need your — if not your active help, your acquiescence in what we’re going to do going after ISIS,” she said.

Russia is already working with the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad against ISIS, but its airstrikes have been targeting other rebel groups looking to topple Damascus’s government, according to the U.S.

The U.S. and other Western countries want to see the Assad regime overthrown and have backed some of the rebel groups battling both ISIS and Assad.

Clinton countered that working with Russia would provide a number of advantages, and said she believed Moscow could be kept informed of no-fly zones meant to protect groups battling ISIS on the ground.

“I want them at the table. They don’t have to participate in it, but I want them to understand that there has to be safe areas on the ground,” she said.

The U.S. and nations including France have weighed working more closely with Russia to defeat ISIS in Syria in the wake of the Paris attacks. But the U.S. has denounced Russian airstrikes in Syria.

President Obama said during a news conference in Paris later Tuesday morning that there could be “pockets of ceasefires” in and around Syria should a diplomatic solution with Russia be reached on the situation there, but said he didn’t expect a turnabout anytime soon on Russia’s strategy.

During the CBS interview, Clinton also reiterated that she agreed with Obama “that we’re not putting American combat troops back into Syria or Iraq.”

Pressed by co-host Charlie Rose on whether she would rule out sending U.S. troops, Clinton said, “At this point, I cannot conceive of any circumstances where I would agree to do that.”

Tags Hillary Clinton Russia Russian airstrikes Syria Syrian civil war