“We have had some productive conversations about what a real Cessation of Hostilities would look like that would allow us both, the United States and Russian Federation, to focus our attention on common enemies, like ISIL and Nusra”.
Advertisement
In their meeting Sunday, Obama and Putin “clarified the remaining gaps” in the negotiations about how they can cooperate to reduce violence in Syria, provide humanitarian assistance and focus on al-Qaida and Islamic State in Syria, according to a senior administration official familiar with the talks who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “It’s premature for us to say that there is a clear path forward, but there is the possibility at least for us to make some progress on that front”.
“An very bad lot of technical things have been worked out, a lot of things are clear, but there still remain, as I say, “a couple of tough issues, Kerry told reporters”.
Obama added he had instructed Kerry, while Russian President Vladimir Putin had told his foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, “to keep working at it over the next several days” in hopes an agreement could lead “to a serious conversation about a political solution to this problem” with all parties directly or indirectly involved in the Syrian conflict. He then huddled with Putin to discuss a cease-fire in Syria – around the same time a series of coordinated explosions rocked government-held areas of the region.
“China provides a rolling staircase for every arriving state leader, but the USA side complained that the driver doesn’t speak English and can’t understand security instructions from the United States; so China proposed that we could assign a translator to sit beside the driver, but the USA side turned down the proposal and insisted that they didn’t need the staircase provided by the airport”, an anonymous official told the South China Morning Post on Sunday.
Calls for a truce have grown more urgent as Syrian national forces fight rebel troops in Aleppo. Amid the chaos, IS has emerged as a global terror threat. The package would include provisions so aid can reach besieged areas of Syria and measures to prevent Assad’s government from bombing areas where USA -backed rebels are operating.
But the USA has always been skeptical of the military coordination part of the deal, because it says Russian Federation has mainly targeted moderate, US -backed opposition groups in a bid to prop up Assad.
Advertisement
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told reporters the two sides are close but it is important for the United States to distinguish “the so-called moderate opposition from the terrorists”. The U.S. wants Russian Federation to focus exclusively on IS and al-Qaida-linked groups. The Kurds are the most effective US-backed anti-Daesh force, but the Turks consider them to be terrorists.
