Obama and Putin discuss Syria in a phone call

He also emphasised the need to implement a nationwide cessation of hostilities in Syria to abide by plans for a truce, said the statement.

This comes after the major powers met in Munich and agreed on Friday to exert their influence on the ground to bring about a limited ceasefire which would allow humanitarian aid to reach besieged areas.

The Syrian Kurdish PYD party rejected Turkish demands for withdrawal, while the Syrian government said Turkish shelling of northern Syria amounted to direct support for insurgent groups.

The Observatory also reported air strikes by jets believed to be Russian in areas east of Damascus, north of Homs, and in the southern province of Deraa. Russian Federation presses its advantage militarily, creates new facts on the ground, uses the denial and delivery of humanitarian aid as a bargaining chip, negotiates an agreement to lock in the spoils of war and then chooses when to resume fighting.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Barack Obama spoke by phone about the continuing conflict in Syria, as forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and backed by Russian air power pressed an offensive around Aleppo, the country’s largest city, officials in Moscow and Washington said Sunday.

Reaction from politicians in the West to the Munich deal was less positive.

The U.S. wants to step up the fight against Islamic State, while Europe is looking to stem the worst refugee crisis since World War II and alleviate a rising terrorist threat. “Let’s be clear about what this agreement does”.

Senator McCain added that Mr Putin “is not interested in being our partner”. Russia’s intervention with a massive bombing campaign in Syria has given the Kremlin an upper hand in bolstering Mr. Assad. He wants to shore up the Assad regime.

Rebel groups “have to prove they are ready to break with the jihadists, not just in words”, Alexei Pushkov, head of the Russian lower house of parliament’s foreign affairs committee, said in an interview in Munich. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, addressing the meeting separately, demanded an end to Russian bombing of groups opposed to Assad. “Common sense will not end the conflict in Syria, that takes leverage.”Nicholas Burns, a former USA undersecretary of state in the Bush administration, said he expects Russian Federation to continue its air campaign until all supply lines to Aleppo are cut.“That seems to be one of their objectives, ” he said in an interview in Munich.

“A coalition composed of a number of the Sunni Arab countries, including Turkey”, along with “American participation of some few thousand”, would be sufficient to capture the Islamic State base in eastern Syria, McCain said.