Obama, Castro To Meet At U.N. Next Week

The US “provision of military support to illegal structures runs counter to the principles of modern worldwide law and the United Nations charter”, Putin said.

“To go further we would need parliamentary backing”.

In a televised speech before his departure to attend the United Nations General Assembly, al-Abadi said Iraq welcomed Russia’s “recent interest” in battling the IS group. They may meet a second time Sunday night.

In comments today, Secretary of State John Kerry reported that Russian Federation has approached the administration about holding talks on military cooperation in the war against ISIS in Syria.

“We are just at the beginning of trying to understand what the Russians intentions are in Syria, in Iraq and try to see if there are mutually beneficial ways forward here”, a senior USA official said on condition of anonymity, lacking authorization to speak publicly about a private meeting.

In an interview, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy said that Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told her his country wanted to prevent the collapse of the Syrian state.

Nevertheless, he emphasized that this is a position that has been devised in coordination with the United States. “This is not yet coordinated”.

The Prime Minister will use one-to-one talks with a number of key figures – though not Mr Putin – to press his case that the Syrian president “can’t be part” of a peaceful solution to the civil war.

Obama rejected Putin’s continued support for Assad, saying that simply arguing that the “alternative is surely worse” is not a solution.

Washington and its allies blame Assad for the mayhem in Syria but have refused to put boots on the ground, despite the chaos after four years of intense bloodshed. It calls for the formation of a transitional government with full executive powers “on the basis of mutual consent”, leading to elections, and would require Assad to relinquish power at a few unspecified point.

Russian president says that “Syrians and only Syrians” should be able to decide the fate of their country. The country struggles against pro-Russia separatists in its east, while Russian Federation denies supporting them.

Months ago Iran produced a proposal to end the Syrian conflict, which has claimed more than 250,000 lives, and Rouhani said it is still under discussion with a few unnamed countries. He pointedly mentioned embarrassing revelations about a costly three-year program to train and equip moderate rebels fighting Assad. A larger role in Iraq could come at the expense of USA clout, with Washington already struggling to compete with Iran for influence on the battlefield.

“It turns out that only 60 of these fighters have been properly trained, and as few as four or five people actually carry weapons”, he said.