PRESS RELEASE

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Head of Kissinger Associates Says U.S. Must Stop Trying To Isolate Russia

Oct. 28, 2016 (EIRNS)—The managing director of Kissinger Associates said the United States must stop its attempts to isolate Russia and cooperate with it in order to resolve the Syria crisis, reported Sputnik. Thomas Graham, who was also former White House Senior Director on Russian Affairs in the George W. Bush administration, said in a speech at the McCain Institute on Oct. 27: "We cannot contain or isolate Russia nor is it our interest to do so. The task is to construct a balance of competition and cooperation." He warned that the next President must realize that Russia will remain a great power with such assets as a world-class diplomatic corps, its conventional military forces, and great resources, as well as its enormous territory and strategic location across Eurasia. Moreover, Graham said, the United States has benefitted from cooperation with Russia in many fields, including non-proliferation efforts, fighting international terrorism, and toppling the Taliban.

On the question of Syria, Graham said,

"Russia is there on the ground and you can’t go around them. There is no way to avoid [it]. I don’t see [that] we have more options than to deal with the Russians."

Graham also said the United States had failed to separate the moderate opposition forces fighting against Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government from the terrorist Nusra Front.

"We have promised to separate the moderate opposition from al-Nusra. Have we done that? No," Graham said. "Can we do that? No, that’s the reality."

Graham called for the U.S. government to abandon its insistence that Assad must be immediately removed from office.