© AFPRussian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov are due to hold talks with US Secretary of State John Kerry in Moscow next week.
According to the State Department, Kerry will visit Moscow on December 15 to meet with Putin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
"We wouldn't be having these negotiations if we didn't think that there was a possibility that Russia's position is evolving such that we could agree," Wallander said on Friday. "I don't know that the positions have come closer, but it's clear that there could be an agreement on a transition that meets US and coalition requirements that Assad not be part of Syria's leadership, and those are the discussions that are under intensive focus right now," she added.
Since late September 2014, the US and its allies have been carrying out airstrikes purportedly against Daesh (IISL) positions in Syria. Senior US officials, including President Barack Obama and Kerry, have been backing so-called moderate militants fighting against the Assad government and repeatedly called for his removal. Russia, however insists that Assad's fate should only be decided by the Syrian people.
Wallander said the White House would look at how Russia can "match its rhetoric to its actual actions and to get serious about fighting ISIL, not about defending [Assad's] regime.
Comment: Well, this is wrong on so many counts. Try the reverse!
"The overwhelming majority of Russian military actions and support is to the Assad regime, to the Assad military forces," she said.
Comment: Russian military actions are geared to destroying ISIL (devil-spawn of the West), while acknowledging a freely and democratically elected president being maligned and persecuted by Western hegemony.
Russia, which has been conducting airstrikes on Daesh in Syria at the request of the Syrian government since September 30, says the US-led coalition has failed to defeat or even contain the terrorists.
Comment: Where is the 'pinpoint?' In the balance may be the future of the world, as in WWIII or de-escalation; who "wins" or "loses;" who is willing to set ego and agenda aside for humanity-at-large; who is willing to risk all for a self-serving outcome. Then again, this might just be more posturing and kicking the can down the proverbial road, hoping the opponent will reveal a weakness. More likely it is a 'pinprick,' a manipulative Western mind-game message to Syria that Russia may sell out Assad. (Nah! Unlikely Mr. Putin will play and lose at the US game of "chicken.")