By Thomas McKInless and Aisha Chowdhry

A senior Democrat on the Finance Committee and former Foreign Relations Committee member, Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., has been in conversation with the State Department on countering the finance activities of the Islamic State. Ahead of the Syria talks in Vienna on Friday, Casey voiced his concern that the governments of Iran and Russia “continue to offer a lifeline to a murderous Assad.” He noted they have been in “clear violation” of U.N. Security Council resolutions in the past and therefore, the intentions of charting a diplomatic path on Syria with Iran and Russia should be made clear: Syrian president Bashar al-Assad must go. “I think its critical Secretary [John] Kerry continues to work out a political solution,” he told CQ Roll Call on Thursday. “This is not a circumstance we can just talk tough and bomb our way or have some kind of military force solve the problem.”