A Turkish soldier on an armoured personnel carrier waves as they drive from the border back to their base in Karkamis on the Turkish-Syrian border in the southeastern Gaziantep province, Turkey, August 27, 2016.
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“We’ve had problems of cyber-intrusions from Russian Federation and other countries in the past”, Obama said, “and we’re moving into a new era here where a number of countries have significant capacities”. Turkey plans further expansion of the zone.
A cessation of hostilities agreement brokered by Lavrov and Kerry in February unraveled within weeks, with Washington accusing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces of violating the pact.
On Putin’s meeting with U.S. counterpart Barack Obama, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the talks lasted “longer than planned”, with Syria and Ukraine being discussed first and foremost.
“The Russians badly want this agreement”, one senior official said.
In comments to Russian journalists earlier in the day, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov indicated that the separation of forces remains an issue. A senior administration official told reporters Tuesday the USA would “walk away” from talks with Russian Federation if a good agreement couldn’t be reached.
President Obama addressed his tense, 90-minute-long meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the G20 in a press conference on Monday. That has led opposition forces, including those with ties to terrorism, to ramp up recruitment of new fighters, the president said.
“A no-fly zone could be set up there, and that was my suggestion to both Obama and Putin. They have contradicting strategic interests about the end goal in Syria”, he said. The two leaders conversed on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit here for ninety minutes, a senior USA official said, and worked to clarify gaps in negotiations over on the Syrian crisis.
He said he still believed that the USA could create safe zones in parts of Syria, despite the presence of Russian aircraft, as well as infighting in northern Syria between US -ally Turkey and US -backed Kurdish rebels.
“What we can not do is have a situation where this becomes the wild, wild West, where countries that have significant cyber capacity start engaging in unhealthy competition or conflict through these means”, the president said. The US has supplied Turkey with military hardware to carry out the operation. For its part, Turkey has been less insistent on Assad’s immediate exit.
“They show more and more respect toward Russian Federation, which underwent sanctions and is building relations with Europe”.
Aside from the diplomatic challenges, a push deeper into Syria by the Turkish-backed Arab and Turkmen rebels poses significant military risks. We have more capacity than anybody both offensively and defensively.
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To its northwest is the village of Dabiq – the site, according to Islamic prophecy, of a final battle between Muslims and infidels, an event in ISIS propaganda that will herald the apocalypse.
