"Syrian Army forces are determined to break the siege of Deir ez-Zor," McGurk stated Friday. "I think it is a decent assumption that over time they will probably succeed in that mission, but how much farther they go from there, that is something that remains to be seen. That is why we will be in fairly detailed discussions with the Russians through military channels on that."
At the same time, McGurk underscored that the east-west deconfliction line near Deir ez-Zor that separates the Syrian government troops and the Syrian Democratic Forces has proven to be very effective.
"Very important deconfliction line with the Russians has helped us enable and accelerate the pressure on ISIS [Daesh] in Raqqa," he stated.
The envoy noted that so far the southwest of Syria is the only place where a ceasefire was locked in upon talks between Jordan, Russia and the United States, but he added that if there are opportunities to build on military-to-military talks with Moscow, the coalition is open to that.
