Reuters said that Mr Putin said on Monday that an agreement with the U.S. on finding a way to significantly reduce the death toll in Syria could be reached in the next few days.
Advertisement
Speaking in China amid the G20 summit in China, President Barack Obama said a lack of trust between the United States and Russian Federation as a hindrance to an agreement between the two countries to establish peace in Syria.
President Barack Obama described the talks as “businesslike” and were “constructive but not conclusive”. “After that Obama and Putin had a one-on-one meeting behind closed doors”, Peskov said.
The deal depends on the two sides agreeing to closer military co-ordination against extremist groups operating in Syria, something the Russians have long sought and the USA resisted.
The U.S. backs some of the rebel groups against Assad, seeing them as relative moderates.
Referring to the presidents’ discussions, the official added: “We want an agreement to be reached as soon as possible due to the humanitarian situation there”.
On opposing sides of many global issues, the USA and Russian Federation are nonetheless trying to broker a deal to address the Syrian civil war and perhaps even partner militarily there.
The US hopes to align with Russian Federation to identify terrorist targets, including ISIS and the Nusra Front, a group formerly tied to al-Qaeda.
Mr Obama said the aim was to reach “meaningful, serious, verifiable cessations of hostilities in Syria”.
The president has said the Turkish offensive in Syria aimed to drive Islamic State away from its border and ensure the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia did not expand in the area. It also claims that Russian Federation supplies rebels in other parts of Ukraine with arms and military specialists in what Ukrainian and United States officials call a “hybrid war” by Russian Federation against Ukraine.
The U.S. has entered into agreements with Russian Federation on Syria and Ukraine, only to have them unravel.
A public break with the Philippines would put Obama in a tough position, given the Southeast Asian nation’s status as a longtime USA treaty ally.
The talks faltered Sunday when Russian Federation pulled back from agreement on issues the USA negotiators believed had been settled, the State Department official said.
Obama said “the typical the tone of our meetings are candid, blunt and businesslike and this one was no different”.
But the US has always been skeptical of the military coordination part of the deal, because it says Russian Federation has mainly targeted moderate, USA -backed opposition groups in a bid to prop up Assad.
Obama’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping also veered into delicate territory, with a lengthy White House description detailing how Obama had pressed Xi to abide by an global tribunal’s ruling against China over the South China Sea.
Advertisement
But the diplomatic efforts were unsuccessful, Obama said at a press conference on Monday. “It is indisputable that it would create a better deal for us than the status quo”, Obama said.
