|
 During a 90-minute meeting, U.S. President Barack Obama and
Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed that their armed forces
should hold talks to avoid coming into conflict in Syria after a
Russian military buildup there over the last several weeks.
The United States, France and allied countries are bombing Islamic
State militants, who have exploited power vacuums to seize parts of
Syria and neighboring Iraq as part of a stated goal of creating an
Islamic caliphate.
The reinforcement of the Russian military presence in the country,
including the addition of tanks and warplanes, has brought fears of
inadvertent or accidental clashes among the forces as well as U.S.
questions about Moscow's main goal.
Speaking after his meeting with Obama, Putin told reporters Russia
was pondering what more it could do to support Syrian government and
Kurdish forces against Islamic State militants.
"We are mulling over what we would really do extra in order to
support those who are in the battlefield, resisting and fighting
with terrorists, ISIS (Islamic State) first of all," Putin said,
ruling out deploying Russian ground troops.
 "There is (an) opportunity to work on joint problems together,"
Putin said of his talks with Obama, which a U.S. official described
as "businesslike."
A senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told
reporters after the meeting: "The Russians certainly understood the
importance of there being a political resolution to the conflict in
Syria, and there being a process that pursues a political
resolution."
CLINKING GLASSES, FROSTY LOOKS
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.
Earlier in the day, relations between the two leaders appeared
frosty - they clinked glasses at a lunch, but Obama had a piercing
look as Putin smiled - and they laid out starkly differing positions
toward Assad in their addresses before the annual United Nations
General Assembly gathering of world leaders.
Obama said he was willing to cooperate with Russia and Iran to try
to end the four-year civil war in Syria, in which at least 200,000
people have died and millions have been driven from their homes. But
he described Assad as its chief culprit.
In contrast, Putin said there was no alternative to cooperating with
Assad's military to fight Islamic State militants, and called for
the creation of a broader international anti-terrorist coalition.
This appeal may compete with the coalition that the United States
has assembled to fight Islamic State.
"The United States is prepared to work with any nation, including
Russia and Iran, to resolve the conflict," Obama, who spoke before
Putin, told the world body. "But we must recognize that there cannot
be, after so much bloodshed, so much carnage, a return to the prewar
status quo."
OBAMA: NO ROLE FOR TYRANTS
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 U.S. animus toward
Assad it was willing to see him stay for some period of time.
[to top of second column]
|
Obama dismissed the argument that authoritarianism was the only way
to combat groups such as Islamic State, saying: "In accordance with
this logic, we should support tyrants like Bashar al-Assad, who
drops barrel bombs to massacre innocent children, because the
alternative is surely worse."
Putin differed, suggesting there was no option but to work with
Assad, a longtime ally of Russia.
"We think it is an enormous mistake to refuse to cooperate with the
Syrian government and its armed forces who are valiantly fighting
terrorism face-to-face," Putin said in his speech.
"We should finally acknowledge that no one but President Assad’s
armed forces and (Kurdish) militia are truly fighting the Islamic
State and other terrorist organizations in Syria," he said.
French President Francois Hollande and Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet
Davutoglu both rejected the possibility of allowing Assad to stay.
BITTER PILL
In voicing a willingness to deal with Iran and Russia, both backers
of Assad, Obama was openly acknowledging their influence in Syria
and swallowing a somewhat bitter pill for the United States.
Tehran has armed the Syrian government and, through its backing of
Lebanese Hezbollah fighters, has helped Assad combat rebels seeking
to end his family's four-decade rule.
U.S. officials say they believe Putin's buildup of Russian forces in
Syria mainly reflects Moscow's fear that Assad's grip might be
weakening and a desire to shore him up to retain Russian influence
in the region.
They also see it as a way for Putin to try to project Russian
influence more widely, a goal he appeared to achieve on Sunday with
Iraq's announcement that Russia, Iran, Syria and the Iraqi
government were sharing intelligence on Syria.
Despite their differences over Syria and Ukraine, the United States
and Russia have worked with Britain, China, France and Germany, a
group known as the P5+1, to secure a nuclear deal with Iran this
summer.
The same group could also take up the issue of Syria, the European
Union's foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, said after a
meeting of the six foreign ministers and Iran on Monday evening.
(Additional reporting by Jeff Mason, Michelle Nichols, Parisa
Hafezi, John Irish, Lesley Wroughton and Reuters U.N. General
Assembly team; Writing By Arshad Mohammed; Editing by David Storey,
Grant McCool and Jonathan Oatis)
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
