The Obama administration’s pact with Russia to strengthen military cooperation in Syria has prompted a widening rift between Secretary of State John Kerry and top Pentagon officials, who warn against sharing intelligence with Russian forces.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter joined some administration officials last week to oppose the agreement on a conference call with the White House. Kerry, who negotiated the deal with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, "grew increasingly frustrated" during the argument, the New York Times reported Tuesday.
Despite reservations from the Pentagon, President Obama ultimately approved the proposal, and Kerry soon after announced the U.S. and Russia had brokered a ceasefire in Syria that would precede joint air strikes between the Cold War enemies.
Pentagon officials on Tuesday refused to confirm whether the Defense Department would implement its side of the deal requiring the U.S. military to share information with Russia on Islamic State targets in Syria following the cessation of hostilities.
"It would be premature to say that we’re going to jump right into it," Lt. Gen. Jeffrey L. Harrigian, commander of the U.S. Air Forces Central Command, told reporters on a conference call, according to the Times.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest also expressed doubt about the agreement.
"I think we’d have some reasons to be skeptical that the Russians are able or are willing to implement the arrangement consistent with the way it’s been described," Earnest said Monday at a briefing. "But we’ll see."
The truce began at sundown Monday. While the Bashar al Assad regime and opposition forces have hurled accusations of violations at each other, residents and activists have reported a significant reduction in violence.
Still, humanitarian aid has yet to enter the country. Armed forces from both sides remain on the routes to the besieged northern Syrian city of Aleppo, preventing truckloads of aid from leaving Turkey until the United Nations is able to negotiate their safe passage, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
"We want to ensure all parties to the conflict are on the same page," said David Swanson, spokesman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. He said the first convoy of 20 aid trucks was to be followed by a second convoy equal in size under the U.N.’s aid delivery plan.
Staffan de Mistura, the U.N.’s special envoy for Syrian, blamed the Assad regime for the obstruction given the government’s previous blockades against aid deliveries.
"The government ... needs to allow unhindered access to those trucks," Mistura said Tuesday evening in Geneva.
Some 300,000 civilians trapped in rebel-held areas of Aleppo are running out of food, medical supplies, and other necessities due to sporadic government sieges blocking aid from entering opposition-controlled regions. Swanson called the humanitarian situation "very dire."
The ceasefire truce sponsored by the U.S. and Russia aims to ultimately spur negotiations between regime officials and opposition forces to strike a political solution to the civil war, which is now in its sixth year.
A Syrian opposition politician said Wednesday that he doubted the deal would last longer than a truce negotiated in February that temporarily curtailed violence before falling apart. He said the pact lacks a credible mechanism to punish violations.
"There is not great confidence that this truce can last longer than the previous one," George Sabra told Reuters. "Any dates given now for resuming the peace talks are not serious at all."
President Assad pledged earlier this week to take back all of Syria from "terrorists," including Syrian rebels, adding that the military would continue fighting "without hesitation, regardless of any internal or external circumstances."
Kerry too has conceded to aides and friends in private that he does not believe the deal will work, according to the Times. Still, he said he is intent on following through with efforts to reduce violence in the region.
Syria’s civil war has killed an estimated 400,000 people since March 2011 while displacing millions of refugees, according to official figures.