Mr Obama also stated that Islamic State militants could not be eliminated until there was a political settlement in Syria.
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Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad has said a political process to end the country’s bloody civil war can not begin while it is occupied by “terrorists”. Putin, too, has issued conciliatory signals, softening his tone about the USA and calling for the US and Russian Federation to “stand together” against the extremist threat.
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks to the media during his news conference after at the G-20 Summit in Antalya, Turkey, Monday, Nov. 16, 2015.
“I can tell you Daesh doesn’t have the natural incubator, social incubator, within Syria”, he said in a television interview with Italian national broadcaster Rai, using the Arabic acronym for the IS group.
US State Department spokesman John Kirby said Assad’s role will be determined in the upcoming talks, but reiterated that the Syrian president must leave as a precondition for any credible peace process.
But after the Paris massacres and the downing of a Russian airliner in a bomb attack also claimed by IS, the countries have joined forces against the jihadists, diverting attention at least momentarily from the question of Assad’s future.
Obama has said that Assad’s status remained a sticking point to such coordination with Russian Federation, and that the US would continue to evaluate whether Russian Federation was serious about focusing its military strikes against Islamic State instead of those forces battling Assad.
A number of former high-ranking French politicians, including former Prime Minister Francois Fillon, have called for France to ease its stance toward Russian Federation. The effort was led, in large part, by the United States, and the USA, relative to many European countries, had very little to lose in cutting off lanes of commerce with Moscow.
But Russian Federation, carrying out air strikes against Syrian rebels since late September, is sticking by Assad along with Shiite Iran, which does not want a Sunni-controlled Syria, according to AFP.
On Wednesday, Russia said that it was clear that global powers should unite without any preconditions on Assad’s fate.
Iran is another potential wild card, for Western countries and their Arab allies, but also possibly for Russian Federation. “Maybe it’s getting through to them”, Talbott said.
Last week’s Paris attacks added urgency to the work of USA diplomats.
The draft does not provide any legal basis for military action but France hopes it will rally support for the campaign against IS jihadists as it steps up its own attacks in Syria and Iraq.
Iran, which participated for the second time in the talks on Syria, said that it would not accept pressure for the ouster of Assad under the pretext of solving the Syrian crisis.
A Syrian security source said “the window to reach an agreement has not ended, but we have yet to reach the results stage”.
However, Mr. Putin, since reclaiming the presidency in 2012, deepened military and economic cooperation with Tehran.
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-Bloomberg’s Henry Meyer, Ilya Arkhipov and Josh Wingrove contributed.
