Chinese President Xi Jinping made a $1 billion pledge for United Nations peace efforts.
Advertisement
At least 38 Islamic State group fighters were killed in air strikes by the Damascus regime against three jihadist-held towns in central Syria, a monitoring group said on today.
Obama did not explicitly call for Assad’s ouster, and he suggested there could be a “managed transition” away from the Syrian president’s rule, the latest sign that despite US animus toward Assad it was willing to see him stay for a few period of time.
“There is (an) opportunity to work on joint problems together”, Putin said of his talks with Obama, which a US official described as “businesslike”.
President Putin assured Netanyahu that “Syria in general is in such a state that it isn’t up to opening a second front” and that Russian Federation ” always will be very responsible” in its Middle East engagement.
U.S.-Russian ties have been deeply strained by Moscow’s March 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and its support of pro-Russian separatists in the eastern part of the country.
Meanwhile, Obama announced that more than 40,000 new troops and police have been pledged to United Nations peacekeeping missions from more than 50 countries.
“Old challenges persist”, Obama said.
Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi also addressed the UNGA.
The envoy met with the heads of these groups in the past two days, with the goal to “set the stage for a Syrian agreement to end the conflict”, the statement said. This is in effect an admission that America’s campaign against Islamic State (IS)-its main security concern in Syria-has failed.
Europe, which has largely dropped out of the peacekeeping business in recent years, was represented by several leaders. “The United States and even the region is still paying the price”.
“Unfortunately, they did not take part in the first meetings, first consultations”, he told reporters.
The poll found that there has been an increase in Russian support for the regime of Bashar Assad in Syria over the last two years.
Also set for Tuesday are high-level meetings on the humanitarian consequences of the war in Syria and the wider refugee and migrant crisis that is the largest since the upheaval of World War II.
Both developments caught USA officials off guard.
The United Nations chief, in unusually hard-hitting words, also blamed “proxy battles of others” for driving the fighting in Yemen, and he warned against “the risky drift” in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, saying it is essential for the worldwide community to pressure both sides to re-engage.
Monday’s meeting marked another chapter in Obama’s and Putin’s history of colorful and tense encounters.
Turkey’s Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu urged the global community on Monday to step up efforts to address the migrant crisis.
France had until now only struck Islamic State targets in neighboring Iraq.
Advertisement
Information for this article was contributed by Cara Anna, Edith M. Lederer, Christopher Bodeen, Vladimir Isachenkov and Alina Heineke of The Associated Press; by Thomas Penny and staff members of Bloomberg News; and by Karen DeYoung of The Washington Post.
