of parallel U.S.-led coalitions—one
in support of anti-Assad rebels, the other supporting the fight against
Islamic State.

At one point last week, the Pentagon came close
to withdrawing its representatives from the Geneva cease-fire talks
after the Russians claimed military cooperation between the U.S. and
Russia was part of the closed-door discussions, according to senior
administration officials.

Mr. Carter was upset about the Russian claims because he had
explicitly ruled out putting military-to-military cooperation on the
table during the cease-fire discussions, the officials said.

The
Pentagon believes Russia made the claims to try to drive a wedge between
the U.S. and its coalition partners, and to try to make it look like
Washington would support Moscow’s military campaign in Syria and accept
Mr. Assad.

While Russia was engaged in the cease fire talks, U.S.
officials say its war planes stepped up the pace of theirsecurity officials, including Ms. Rice and Mr. McDonough,
have privately voiced skepticism in the past about the CIA effort.
White House critics of the program warned that open-ended support for
the rebels could pull the U.S. deeper into the conflict over time, with
little chance of success as long as Moscow is prepared to double down
in support of Mr. Assad, according to former administration officials.

Current
and former officials said Mr. Obama was persuaded in 2013 to
green-light the covert program in Syria in part because doing so gave
the CIA influence over the actions of regional partners, including Saudi
and Turkish intelligence, preventing them, for example, from
introducing advanced anti-aircraft weapons known as Manpads on the
battlefield. Washington warned the weapons could fall into terrorists’
hands and be turned against commercial aircraft.

As mentioned in previous posts the intermingling of