![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/636050597229483768-ap-517360747070jpg.jpg\")
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, right, greets Russian President Vladimir Putin during their meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow on July 14.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Photo Credit: Vasily MaximovAP<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n At Monday’s Pentagon press briefing, Carter made the case for a potential deal with the Russians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Our interests are to see a political transition promoted, number one, and that puts an end to the violence in Syria and gives the Syrian people back a government and a life that they deserve. And second, the defeat of extremism there and in Iraq,” Carter said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Those are the U.S. interests. And to the extent that Russia can align with U.S. interests, we work with them as has been the case in Iran, North Korea and other places where U.S. and Russian interests have aligned. It’s the alignment of those interests that Secretary Kerry’s exploring,” Carter said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n The potential deal comes at a time of rising tension between the U.S. and Russia on issues beyond Syria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Democratic Party officials in Washington say the Russians hacked into their email services and recently released a trove of confidential correspondences aimed at discrediting Hillary Clinton and influencing the outcome of the American presidential elections in November.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Europe, the Russian military has conducted a series of aggressive actions and maneuvers against U.S. military ships and planes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n U.S. officials say the official policy toward Russia in Europe is now one of “deterrence” and the U.S. Army plans to send an additional combat brigade to Eastern Europe to reassure American allies in the region.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The military’s top officer said that any plan to cooperate with Russia in Syria must protect U.S. secrets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":89404,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3125],"class_list":["post-84239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"RO6RTPDHM5CYHL7TGMFISE52VE","arc_canonical_url":"\/2016\/07\/25\/top-u-s-general-says-cooperation-with-russia-must-preserve-operational-security\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n