Obama urged Putin to decrease tensions with Turkey following the shoot-down of a Russian jet by Turkish forces.
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The two leaders hadn’t scheduled a formal meeting during the two days of talks but found time to huddle on the sidelines. One Russian soldier was killed in a rescue operation. He warned of “serious consequences” and called it a “stab in the back” administered by “the accomplices of terrorists”. He said the two leaders discussed Syria in detail, and they both spoke in favor of moving toward the launch of a political settlement to Syria’s civil war.
President Barack Obama, right, and French President Francois Hollande place flowers at the Bataclan, site of one of the Paris terrorists attacks, to pay his respects after arriving in town for the COP21 climate change conference Monday, Nov. 30, 2015, in Paris.
The U.S. had been cautiously optimistic about closer cooperation with Russian Federation in fighting the Islamic State group.
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“President Obama reiterated his belief that it will be necessary for Bashar al-Assad to leave power as a part of the transition and stressed the imperative of focusing military efforts against ISIL, as our global coalition is doing, rather than targeting moderate opposition”, the White House official said, using another acronym for IS.
