Russia urges U.S. to deliver on promise to separate Syria's moderates from 'terrorists'

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov urged U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday to make good on U.S. pledges to separate Washington-oriented units of Syrian opposition from "terrorist groups", Russia's Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday. Lavrov told Kerry in a telephone conversation that warlords from the Nusra Front had openly spoken about foreign support, including supplies of U.S. weapons. The Nusra Front was recently renamed Jabhat Fatah al Sham. The two diplomacy chiefs also discussed possible ways of influencing the situation in the Syrian city of Aleppo based on the principles of a U.S.-Russian ceasefire plan, the ministry said. The U.S. State Department said earlier on Wednesday that Kerry had threatened during the call with Lavrov to halt joint work with Russia on Syria unless Russia moved to end the assault on Aleppo and to restore the defunct ceasefire. (Reporting by Lidia Kelly and Maria Kiselyova; Writing by Dmitry Solovyov)