Talks with the United States on Syria are at a "dead end". Lavrov is now appealing directly to the international community to stop Washington

Has Sergei Lavrov given up all hope for diplomatic cooperation with the United States?

Back in October, the Russian Foreign Minister told the BBC that Washington "gave rise and support to Al-Nusra."

Lavrov lets the cat out of the bag, again.

Now he's saying that the U.S. is coordinating directly with ISIS:

Via Reuters:

Lavrov said he believed that Islamic State's seizure of Palmyra might have been engineered by the U.S.-led coalition to divert attention from Aleppo. "That leads us to a thought - and I am sincerely hoping I am wrong, that this is all orchestrated, coordinated to give a break to those bandits that are in eastern Aleppo," he said.

Lavrov isn't your run-of-the-mill diplomat. He didn't get his job by donating to the Clinton Foundation. He's a seasoned, career diplomat who has spent his whole life mastering the art of using persuasion, not bombs, to solve conflicts.

So when Sergei Lavrov states rather bluntly that he thinks the U.S. probably coordinated Islamic State's attack on Palmyra, it should be interpreted as an attempt to achieve some sort of diplomatic headway with Washington: As in, "publicly stating that the U.S. likely works with terrorists is now Russia's best chance of averting X with Washington."

We'll let you fill in the X.