U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, center, on Sunday walks through the Hangzhou International Expo Center during the G20 Summit in Hangzhou in eastern China’s Zhejiang Province.
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Almost two weeks since the August 24 start of Turkey’s “Operation Euphrates Shield” in Syria, Turkey said it has removed ISIS from the Turkish-Syrian border.(ANSAmed).
At the start of his trip, a logistical spat over missing airline airplane stairs needed for Obama to reach the red carpet at Hangzhou airport and verbal altercations between U.S. and Chinese officials grabbed headlines. “However, we must ensure that it is an effective agreement”, the official said. “If we can not get the type of agreement we want, we will walk away from that effort”. The militant group, which is seeking to topple Syrian President Bashar al Assad, in July said it had cut its ties to al Qaeda and changed its name to Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, but Washington still regards it as a terrorist group.
Meanwhile, Putin told reporters that a deal with the USA to “ease tensions in Syria” may come “within a few days”, according to Russia’s state news agency TASS.
Obama called the discussion on Syria “productive” about what a real cessation of hostilities would actually look like.
The outstanding gaps, the official said, were “technical”, having to do with the implementation of the agreement.
Obama’s wariness was less apparent among his State Department negotiators, who had been so hopeful a deal could come together while world leaders gathered in China that they scheduled a press conference and announced plans to brief reporters on the pact.
For Mr Obama, a military partnership with Russian Federation would mark a significant change.
In the five-year conflict, Washington and Moscow support opposing sides, which has killed around 300,000 people. For months, he said, Russian Federation had been asking the Americans for “a real, genuine demarcation between terrorists and the so-called opposition”.
The rancor continued throughout Saturday as Obama met with Chinese President Xi Jinping to cement a carbon reduction agreement and haggle over longstanding disputes like cybersecurity and maritime aggression.
“I think we managed to get to an understanding of one another and to understanding of the problems that we are facing”, Putin added.
Obama and President Vladimir Putin were pictured on Monday locked in an unfriendly stare, clearly with little love lost between them.
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Since the failed coup, the USA has been alarmed by Turkey’s diplomatic flirtations with Russia, Assad’s patron, and softened demand for Assad’s exclusion from a political transition.
