Russia’s initial intervention in Syria was created to give it a say over the country’s future.
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The USA contributed to the strengthening of al-Qaeda, which led to the events of September 11, Interfax reported, citing Medvedev.
The Violations Documentation Center in Syria, an activist group that keeps track of Syria’s dead, wounded and missing persons, said that the first 45 days of Russian airstrikes killed 526 civilians, including 137 children and 71 women.
The president spoke in Malaysia shortly before departing for Washington.
Mr. Obama said Mr. Putin needs to make a “strategic adjustment” and drop Russia’s military support for Syrian President Bashar Assad, saying the civil war that has allowed the Islamic State to grow stronger can’t be stopped until Mr. Assad leaves office. Obama’s special envoy to the coalition fighting the Islamic State, Brett McGurk, said on CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday that “we’re not going to relent until we destroy this barbaric terrorist organization”.
Speaking at a news conference before leaving Malaysia to return home at the end of a 10-day overseas trip, pledged to intensify the fight against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS and ISIL.
But following the downing of a Russian passenger plane over Egypt on October 31, and a series of terrorist attacks in Paris on November 13 – Islamic State has claimed responsibility for both terror acts- Moscow has toned down its adamantly anti-Western rhetoric of the past year, and called for unity in fighting Islamic State.
French President Francois Hollande is due to meet with Obama at the White House on Tuesday to discuss ways to bolster the global coalition fighting the Islamic State. Hollande then heads to Russian Federation for talks with Putin. Discussions will continue in Vienna searching for a political solution.
Violence in Syria has led to the deaths of 250,000 people and displaced millions, according to the Associated Press.
Foreign ministers from about 20 nations agreed last week to an ambitious yet incomplete plan that sets a January 1 deadline for the start of negotiations between Assad’s government and opposition groups.
The Paris attacks have heightened fears of terrorism in the West and also sparked a debate in the USA about accepting refugees from Syria. In Turkey and the Philippines last week, Obama pushed back on those proposals as un-American, drawing criticism from a few who said he failed to grasp Americans’ post-Paris fears.
Obama was responding to a report in The NY Times on Sunday that described the internal Pentagon investigation.
USA lawmakers are pushing legislation to tighten screening requirements for Syrian refugees; a few Republican presidential candidates want to halt their entry. Having secured a veto-proof majority in the House, supporters are now hoping for a repeat in the Senate, while Obama works to shift the conversation to milder visa waiver changes that wouldn’t affect Syrian refugees.
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Combating Islamic State (former ISIS/ISIL) is not about making an alliance with Moscow, former Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union”. He said the women reminded him of his teenage daughters and his late mother.
