Putin says ‘differences can be resolved’ after meeting with Obama

The two leaders met following highly contentious and conflicting speeches at the UN General Assembly earlier in the day.

But much of the gathering has been dominated by the fighting in Syria.

With no immediate signs of success in bringing down the self-proclaimed Islamic State, or IS, the meetings in New York have focused on the best way forward in Syria.

United States President Barack Obama, right, and Russia’s President President Vladimir Putin arrive to pose for members of the media before a bilateral meeting Monday, September 28, 2015, at United Nations headquarters.

Obama said he was willing to cooperate with Russian Federation 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. It also comes amid US concerns about Russian Federation expanding its military presence in Syria.

But he declared that there could be no return to the pre-war status quo, when Assad held sway.

The United States and Russian Federation continue to clash over whether to work with Bashar al-Assad to stop I-S, also known as ISIL.

Moscow has put Washington on the back foot by dispatching troops and aircraft to the war-torn country and pushing reluctant world leaders to admit that Assad could cling to power.

In his first address at the forum since 2005, Putin warned that the terrorist threat can now expand to more regions of the planet, and stressed that to act inconsistently and with double standards, can only exacerbate the problem.

“With respect to Ukraine, the president reiterated our support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Ukraine government“, the official said, and added that Obama noted the opportunity to implement the Minks accord in the next few months.

“Russia has always been consistently fighting against terrorism in all its forms”.

“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. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said that while Syria’s government needs reform, the country will fall to the Islamic State if the worldwide community makes getting rid of Assad its top goal.

U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s first formal meeting in more than two years started with an awkward handshake and ended without a breakthrough on Syria, a crisis that has strained their already tense relationship.

“Russia and Iran say they want to be part of a solution”, he said.

But she says she hopes a level of cooperation can be reached between the parties to defeat IS, also known as Daesh.

In contrast, Putin said there was no alternative to cooperating with Assad’s military to fight ISIL militants, and called for the creation of a broader global anti-terrorist coalition.

Not to be outdone, the Russian leader blamed the rise of violent extremism on the U.S. military interventions in Iraq and Libya, which he said unleashed chaos in the Middle East.