Putin, Obama agree on cooperation to implement Syria agreement

And McCain continued the criticism Sunday, saying that the recent agreement on a cessation of hostilities would require “opposition groups to stop fighting, but… allows Russian Federation to continue bombing terrorists which it insists is everyone, even civilians”.

Putin took the call from Obama and both sides “gave a positive evaluation” of the results of talks in Munich last week, according to a Kremlin statement, which called the exchange “frank and business-like”.

At an annual security conference in Munich on Friday, world powers agreed to a “cessation of hostilities” that would let humanitarian aid be delivered in Syria. “He wants to re-establish Russian Federation as a major power in the Middle East”. “His appetite is growing with the eating”.

“Almost every day they call Russian Federation the main threat for NATO, Europe, the US and other countries”. He even accused Putin of not being interested in having a partnership with the US and using Syria to modernize its military.

The Kremlin also said Putin spoke with Obama about the importance of creating a unite anti-terrorism front.

If they do, it will be the first agreed and sustained halt to the fighting in a brutal civil war that began in 2011, and so far has killed more than 250,000 people and displaced half the country’s population of 22 million, four million of whom have migrated or become refugees.

“I think that the Islamic State should thank my colleagues [heads of Western countries] that canceled collaboration with Russia’s special services”, Medvedev said.

“It is deplorably observed that instead of halting their airstrikes, Russians especially have escalated these attacks in Syria and targeted civilians, hospitals, schools”, said the statement. “Bashar al-Assad will leave – have no doubt about it” Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir told CNN. “I don’t see any”, he told the conference.

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.

Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency said Turkish artillery units fired at Kurdish fighters in the Syrian town of Azaz in Aleppo province, saying it was in response to incoming Kurdish fire.

However, Paris has provided military support to Kurdish groups in Syria, and this month French officials accompanied the USA envoy to the coalition against Islamic State, Brett McGurk, to Syria’s Kurdish region.

Russia is counting on Assad’s control of more territory giving it leverage against Europe, a Russian official said, asking not to be identified to discuss internal deliberations.

“Turkey has responded in this manner in the past”, said Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister Yalcin Akdogan.

Free Syrian Army fighters fire from a tank during what they said was an offensive against Syrian government forces in the southern city of Deraa last June.

-By Dominique Soguel in Istanbul.