Putin to meet Obama

Russia’s sudden military build-up this month in support of Assad and a refugee crisis that has spilled over from the region into Europe have lent new urgency to attempts to resolve the Syria conflict.

Speaking at a Pentagon briefing, Carter said that Moscow’s buildup in Syria could “pour gasoline on the (ISIS) phenomenon”, due to their backing of one of the extremist group’s top enemies – the embattled government of Syrian President Bashar Assad. The U.S. seems to be increasingly on board with that, with former Gen. David Petraeus openly endorsing al-Qaeda as the United States ally of choice.

“We haven’t seen the Russians be particularly willing to live up to the commitments they made in the context of diplomatic talks”, Earnest said.

Mr. Carter said he spoke last week with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Shoygu, and came away with the impression that he genuinely share’s Washington’s “desire to defeat ISIL” as well as “the need for a political transition in Syria“.

The meeting comes at the request of the Russian side and it would be irresponsible of President Obama to skip this chance, Reuters cited a senior official in Obama’s administration.

They last met face to face a year ago during an APEC summit in China and only talked on the phone a few times since then.

Shaaban said there was a “change in the West’s positions” over Syria’s war, which has killed more than 240,000 people and displaced millions since 2011.

CBS interviewer Charlie Rose suggested that this Russian military intervention was created to “rescue” Assad, and Putin replied: “Well, you’re right”. With the situations developing fast in Ukraine and Syria, every discussion with Russia’s president can be very insightful.

Russian Federation has declined to comment on the full scope of its military support for Assad, but US officials have said it includes at least two dozen fighter jets as well as tanks, troops and artillery.

The decision to hold talks checks a United States policy of punishing Putin for his invasion of Ukraine, a stance that also brought global sanctions that have crippled the Russian economy.

The two camps also differed over who called for the meeting.

But Hodges cautioned that Russia’s role in Syria risked having a negative effect on the conflict from Washington’s perspective.