Russia, US Could Lean on Turkey to Seal Borders to Defeat Daesh

Green Party’s candidate in the 2016 US presidential election said that Russia and the United States could ban weapon supplies to the Middle East and make Turkey close its borders with Syria and Iraq in a joint effort to defeat Daesh.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Russia and the United States could ban weapon supplies to the Middle East and make Turkey close its borders with Syria and Iraq in a joint effort to defeat Daesh, also known as ISIL/The Islamic State, the Green Party’s candidate in the 2016 US presidential election, Jill Stein, said Thursday.

"Between the two of us [Russia and the US], we could create a weapons embargo [on the Middle East], we could lean on Turkey to shut down its borders," Stein told RT broadcaster's International Conference in Moscow.

Former London Mayor Ken Livingstone, in his address to the conference, added that the fight against Daesh requires a broad coalition, not just a US-led international campaign.

Former director of the US Defense Intelligence Agency Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, also speaking at the event, urged Russia and the United States to "quit acting like two bullies on the playground," calling the relationship between the two countries a "marriage, whether we like it or not and that marriage is very very rocky right now."

A US-led international coalition has been carrying out a campaign against Daesh, a group outlawed in a number of countries including Russia, in Syria since 2014. Russian jets commenced a separate military operation against Daesh and other extremists in Syria on September 30, following a request from Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has long called for the creation of a broad international coalition to fight Daesh, including at the UN General Assembly in September.