President Barack Obama and Russian president Vladimir Putin have failed to force a breakthrough in negotiations over a ceasefire for Syria, but agreed to keep looking for a path to provide humanitarian relief to thousands of besieged civilians in the civil war-ravaged country.
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Meeting with Putin on the sidelines of the Group of 20 economic meeting in China, Obama emphasized the humanitarian importance of and urgent need for a cease-fire, but he was adamant about not striking an agreement that wouldn’t meet his long-term objectives in Syria, said a White House official who spoke on the condition of anonymity under ground rules.
A White House official says the two leaders are still working on how the deal would be implemented and planned to meet again soon – perhaps as early as next week.
Mr Obama was slated to leave China Monday evening, after a closing press conference.
Asked by CNN’s Michelle Kosinski about his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the President described it as “candid” and “blunt” focusing mainly on Syria and Ukraine.
Putin said he and the US president took another step forward on moving to resolve the crisis in Syria. But given the gaps of trust that exist, that’s a tough negotiation.
At the press conference Monday, Obama also addressed concerns about cybersecurity, acknowledging that the US has “had problems with cyber intrusions” from Russian Federation and other countries.
“President Obama and President Putin were not going to get down into the weeds of the language of an agreement and the implementation associated with the agreement”, the official said.
“We’re not there yet”, Obama told reporters Sunday.
“The prime minister is only beginning her work, she has internal issues to deal with, but the United Kingdom and Russian Federation used to have very stable and full-format relations at some point, we are ready to return to them”.
For months, he said, Russian Federation has been asking the Americans for “a real, genuine demarcation between terrorists and the so-called opposition”. “We’ve got to figure out how to make certain both of us can be comfortable with the resolution to those issues, so that’s what we’re working on”.
“Our goal is not to suddenly in the cyber arena duplicate a cycle of escalation that we saw when it comes to other arms races in the past”, he said, “but rather to start instituting some norms so that everyone is acting responsibly”. But the U.S. was wary of entering a deal that would not be effective.
Meanwhile, Putin told reporters that a deal with the U.S. to “ease tensions in Syria” may come “within a few days”, according to Russia’s state news agency TASS.
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Mr Putin is a firm ally of President Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian civil war. The U.S. government hasn’t blamed Russian Federation for the incident. The Islamic State group only claimed responsibility for one of the attacks, the bombings were timed closely together.
