Ex-UN ambassador: US and Russia ‘need to work with each other’
A former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations says America and Russia need to work together in the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) to bring stability to Middle East.
Bill Richardson said Russian President Vladimir Putin is “not a friend,” but can be an instrumental partner in ending the Syrian civil war.
{mosads}“We need to be very careful, but Americans and Russians need to work with each other,” he told host John Catsimatidis on “The Cats Roundtable” on New York’s AM 970 on Sunday.
“We have not worked with each other in the last five years. We need cooperation on Syria.”
The former New Mexico governor said the U.S. must find a way to convince Putin to withdraw his support of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
“We need to get Russia off this kick of wanting to save Assad,” he said. “We need to get Russia to stop meddling in Ukraine. But we also need Russia when it comes to arms-controls agreements. We need them to keep Iran contained. We need them for energy, for eliminating nuclear weapons.”
“We’re two super powers — Russia is not as strong as it used to be — but it’s a shame that we’re not getting along, when in the past we had an understanding with each other,” he added.
Richardson said the Syrian rebel forces opposing Assad are not ideal alternatives to Assad, but added that “if Russia, the United States, instead of just fighting over Assad, we fight ISIS together with Europe, we may have a chance to bring some kind of stability to the region.”
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