Kerry has long expressed frustration with the lack of progress on Syria and faced criticism for trying to make a deal with Russian Federation, an ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whom U.S. President Barack Obama has said “must go”.
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“Aleppo is a big part of the conversation”, the official said. “If we can not get the type of agreement we want, we will walk away from that effort”.
“Despite everything, we have some alignment of positions and an understanding of what we could do to de-escalate the situation in Syria”, Putin told reporters, without providing more details.
However, to accomplish its plan to defeat Daesh and other radical Islamist forces on the ground in Syria the United States needs to strike a deal with Russian Federation. -Russian military partnership against extremist groups.
Several senior administration officials have told CNN in recent weeks the administration was discussing possibly declaring the cessation of hostilities over and ending its cooperation with Russian Federation if Moscow continued to violate the ceasefire and block the flow of humanitarian aid.
Obama on Sunday had tamped down expectations for a deal, saying negotiations with the Russians on a new cease-fire still had “grave differences” with what the USA wanted. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov insists there needs to be a clearer distinction between legitimate opposition groups and militants: “I don’t see any possibility of assuring a really durable, full-fledged ceasefire without the separation of healthy opposition forces from terrorists”.
But as he prepares to leave office, critics say Obama’s failure to intervene in Syria has had similarly bloody results, allowing the conflict to fester for years.
One of Obama’s senior administration officials said the two worldly powerhouses had a constructive meeting where they discussed the issues openly and bluntly while conducting it in a businesslike manner. “And, respectively, [it means] the delineation of areas of responsibility”, Murakhovsky said, stressing that the Americans have been discussing this question for nearly half a year.
Kerry says he and Lavrov plan to meet again Monday. The presidents appeared in congenial moods, with one photo showing Putin smiling broadly.
The kaleidoscope of Syria’s multi-sided war is changing daily and the latest casualty is hope of a US-Russia agreement that would bring about a truce and humanitarian relief. Turkey’s actions “could further complicate the military and political situation in Syria, which is dire as it is” and jeopardize global efforts to reach a peace deal, it added.
“But given the gaps of trust that exist, that’s a tough negotiation and we haven’t yet closed the gaps in a way that we think would actually work”, he added.
Obama has expressed skepticism that Russian Federation would hold to its agreement.
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“You have the Assad regime which has been killing its own citizens with impunity, supported by the Russians and the Iranians”, Obama said on Sunday.
