Obama says cautious about expectations for Syria deal

President Barack Obama held a bilateral meeting with King Abdullah of Jordan on Wednesday, in which Obama emphasized values of ” moderation and voice of reason ” the king represents. “Humanitarian aid must be allowed to reach areas under siege”.

“The coming days will be critical, and the world will be watching”.

“We continue to agree that it’s important for us to provide both sides a sense of possibility and hope, and not simply despair”, Obama said.

Mr Obama said that factional rivalry among the rebels, as well as the campaign against IS, meant there would be no immediate end to violence.

Tensions between South Korea and China over how to deal with the North have flared into an unusually blunt diplomatic dispute, with Seoul telling Beijing on Wednesday not to meddle in its talks with the United States over the possible deployment of an American missile-defense system here.

Russian Federation intervened in the conflict on the side of Assad in September, and Iranian fighters have provided crucial support to the Syrian army in its fight against insurgents.

“This is going to be a test of whether the parties are truly committed to negotiations”, Obama said.

“It is clear that after years of barbarity against his people, many will not stop fighting until Assad is out of power”, he said. “There’s no alternative to a managed transition away from Assad”, he argued.

Obama also sought to show that a US-led coalition was winning the war against the Islamic State group.

Rentawi said Jordanians understand that the Obama administration doesn’t have much interest in launching a new peace initiative between Palestinians and Israel, “but at least we need to be sure that this issue will always be on the table”, he said, describing the festering conflict as one of the main sources of instability in the region.

“Raqqa is not the capital of a growing caliphate; it’s increasingly under stress as ISIL territory shrinks”, he said.

“More people are realising that IS is not a caliphate, it’s a crime ring”.