President Barack Obama said Monday the US and Russian Federation have not given up on negotiations that could stem the bloodshed in Syria, but acknowledged leaders are challenged by “gaps of trust” between the rival powers.
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In a bid to protect its border, Turkey launched an incursion into northern Syria nearly two weeks ago, and has since cleared Daesh and Kurdish militia fighters from a 90-km (56-mile) stretch of territory.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States has been focused on making sure that the agreement allows for a “period of calm so that we can get urgently needed humanitarian assistance to populations that are in need”.
That would be a relief for Filipino officials nervous about what their unscripted and impolitic leader might say behind closed doors. Following Obama’s meeting with Putin, an official said the leaders indicated a desire for Kerry and Lavrov to reconvene deliberations in the coming days.
Although economic sanctions against Russian Federation by the U.S., the European Union and other countries have been in place for over two years, estimates of their effect still vary. A foe today might become an ally tomorrow, and vice versa. Obama said the aim was to reach “meaningful, serious, verifiable cessations of hostilities in Syria”.
“We are talking about two superpowers with great stakes in Syria”.
The administration, which has always been reluctant to intervene directly in the civil war, nonetheless thinks that it is a distraction to what it considers the more important, separate battle against the Islamic State – in both Syria and Iraq – and that it must be resolved.
Russian Federation has insisted that it can not agree to a deal unless opposition fighters, backed by the United States and Middle East allies, are separated from al-Qaeda linked militants they overlap with in some areas.
Senior US officials said Tuesday they hope an initial 48-hour ceasefire in Aleppo would enable the United Nations to set up internationally monitored checkpoints that could get aid through.
“Today we got to the point where we thought it would be useful for them to sit down again”, one senior official said of Kerry and Lavrov. The State Department has said it wants a nationwide cease-fire between Assad’s military and the rebels, rather than another time-limited agreement like ones that failed before. The Kurds are the most effective US-backed anti-Daesh force, but the Turks consider them to be terrorists. The Kurdish fighters are since supposed to have pulled back east of the Euphrates. “If they don’t retreat, Turkey will be determined and return Manbij to its owners”, said Yasin Aktay, a spokesman for Turkey’s ruling AK Party, referring to Arab and Turkmen communities who lived there before civil war broke out in 2011. The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for several of the attacks, which mostly targeted normally-secure regions controlled by the Syrian government or by Kurdish forces, NPR’s Alison Meuse reports.
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She said she had “an absolute rock steadiness” to be able to make tough decisions, a not so subtle dig at Trump, who Democrats say is temperamentally unfit for the White House.
