Obama, Putin agree on need for UN-negotiated Syria ceasefire

US President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed Sunday on the need for UN-sponsored peace talks and a ceasefire to resolve years of war in Syria, a White House official says.

The two leaders spoke during a short and unannounced summit meeting over a coffee table on the margins of a G20 summit in the Turkish resort of Antalya.

“President Obama and President Putin agreed on the need for a Syrian-led and Syrian-owned political transition, which would be preceded by UN-mediated negotiations between the Syrian opposition and regime as well as a ceasefire,” the official tells reporters after the meeting.

The official, who wishes to remain anonymous, says Obama welcomed efforts by all nations to confront Islamic State jihadists in Syria amid Western suspicions that Russia’s intervention is really aimed at propping up Syrian President Bashar Assad.

A top Kremlin official says that while Moscow and Washington shared “strategic objectives” to fight Islamic State, divergences still exist.

“Differences on tactics still remain,” Putin’s foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov tells reporters on the sidelines of the summit.

— AFP