Obama, Putin huddle on sidelines of Paris climate talks

President Barack Obama urged Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday to decrease tensions with Turkey, as the US and Russian leaders met briefly on the sidelines of global climate talks outside Paris.

Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said his government was intensively lobbying the opposition Labour party to support air strikes in Syria, two years after it had blocked that option.

“What we agreed, and this is important, is to strike only terrorists and the (Islamic State) and to not strike forces fighting terrorism”, Hollande said, speaking in a joint news conference with Putin.

“We believe that we would better create a single, united coalition as it would be easier, simpler and more efficient to coordinate our work that way”.

But at the same time the relationship between Turkey and Russia plummeted to sub zero amid bitter recriminations over the downing of a a Russian warplane in Syria.

Russia says that its plane never left Syrian airspace, where it was conducting bombing raids against Russian jihadis hiding out in a remote mountain region.

Putin said he was “very sorry” to see the break-down of long-cultivated links with Turkey, but added that problems in bilateral ties have started building up long ago as Turkey has refused to hand over Russian suspects accused of terrorism. Russia is a major destination for Turkish exports and Turkey imports vast amounts of Russian gas.

“As the two largest economies in the world and the two largest carbon-emitters, we have both determined that it is our responsibility to take action”, Mr. Obama said.

Putin had presented fellow leaders at the Group of 20 summit hosted by Turkey in Antalya earlier this month with aerial pictures of what he described as convoys of oil trucks carrying oil from IS-controlled oilfields in Syria to the Turkish territory.

While Erdogan has denied the Russian accusations, Putin insisted that the illegal oil trade has acquired a massive scale.

It’s a marked shift for him and Obama who said previously that Assad should go immediately to make way for a political change in Syria.

“Our pilots write on their bombs: “For ours!” and “For Paris!”

He also saluted Paris for proceeding with the climate talks as planned in the wake of a brutal massacre, saying that holding the summit is “an act of defiance that proves nothing will deter us from building the future that we want for our children”.

The Syrian president said that this escalation came after the Syrian people showed resilience over years and after the Syrian army’s substantial achievements against terrorism.