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Obama, Putin instruct to continue negotiating on Syrian conflict

Obama and Putin did not get into the finer details of a deal, but made progress to clarify “the remaining gaps” and directed Kerry and Lavrov to meet as early as this week to keep working on a deal, the official told reporters.

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“The Syrian citizens in our country and those would want to migrate from Syria can now find the opportunity to live more peacefully in their own land and their own houses”, Erdogan said of the area cleared of militants.

Both Russian and U.S. officials said the meeting – which was held in a conference room at the G20 summit site here – lasted longer than planned, and that leaders spent the bulk of their meeting discussing Syria.

“We’re not there yet”, Obama said. “We haven’t yet closed the gaps”.

US President Obama says an agreement with Russian Federation on ending the violence in Syria is being hampered by “gaps of trust” between the two governments.

Backed by Russian warplanes, President Bashar al-Assad’s forces have waged an air and ground campaign that has killed hundreds of thousands of people, sparked a humanitarian crisis and forced millions of Syrians to seek refuge in Europe.

President Barack Obama says he has asked his staff to assess whether it would be productive for him to meet with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.

There is no basis for dramatic statements after Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry failed to strike a deal on Syria, Interfax news agency quoted a source at the Russian foreign ministry as saying on Monday. -Russian militarily partnership against extremist groups operating in Syria. In recent days, the State Department has said it is seeking a nationwide cease-fire between Assad’s military and the rebels, rather than another “cessation of hostilities” that is time-limited and only stops fighting in some cities and regions. “Obama came to Putin and offered (to hold a separate meeting)”, the source said.

“There are still issues to resolve”, CNN quoted the United States official as saying. Putin has denied his government was involved, but cheered the release of the information. They discussed, above all, Syria and Ukraine.

The hard diplomacy on Syria set the tone for an uneven few days for Obama on his final tour of Asia as president.

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US authorities are also said to be investigating the hack of another Democratic Party organization, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

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