Talk Syria and Attack on Nato ‘very dangerous’ N Korea in Kabul kills eight civilians
First call since US raid in response to Syria gas attack
US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin agreed on Tuesday to work together to end the violence in Syria and combat rising terrorism in West Asia. This was the first phone conversation between the two leaders since the US bombed a Syrian airfield in response to a chemical attack, purportedly carried out by the Bashar al-assad government.
The White House described the conversation as “a very good one”, while the Kremlin in Moscow called it “businesslike and constructive”.
The two leaders agreed, the White House said, “the suffering in Syria has gone on for far too long and that all parties must do all they can to end the violence.”
They discussed the creation of “safe, or de-escalation zones to achieve lasting peace for humanitarian and other reasons”.
Later on Wednesday, Putin said Russia, the US, Turkey, Iran and Syria were close to agreeing the establishment of “safe zones” which would amount to “no-fly zones”, according to media reports. He said Trump had told him in the call that he supported the idea.
After the call, the US also said it will send representatives to cease-fire talks in Astana, Kazakhstan.
The Kremlin said the “emphasis” of the conversation was on “future coordination of Russian and US actions to fight international terrorism in the context of the Syrian crisis”.
The two leaders went beyond Syria and “discussed at length working together to eradicate terrorism throughout” West Asia, the White House said.
US secretary of state Rex Tillerson later said the conversation, which lasted 30 minutes, “was a very constructive call that the two presidents had.”
An unidentified US official told The Wall Street Journal there was no breakthrough in the conversation and that the Trump administration was not sure if Moscow —Assad’s most powerful backer — was serious about resolving the crisis.
The phone conversation, which came in the aftermath of Trump describing relations between the two countries being at an “all-time low”, was seen as an attempt to resume cooperation, which Trump has repeatedly said he was keen to.
North Korea on Wednesday confirmed the detention of an American citizen for alleged acts of hostility aimed at overthrowing the country.
Kim Sang Dok, an accounting instructor at Pyongyang University of Science and Technology, was “intercepted” at Pyongyang International Airport on April 22, according to the Korean Central News Agency.
It said he was being detained while authorities conduct a detailed investigation into his alleged crime.
He is now the third American being detained in North Korea. The other US detainees are Otto Warmbier, serving a 15-year prison term with hard labour for alleged anti-state acts, and Kim Dong Chul, serving a 10-year term with hard labour for alleged espionage.
The US State Department said last month that it was aware of the report about a US citizen being detained, but declined further comment “due to privacy considerations”.
Animosity between Pyongyang and Washington has spiked amid a game of brinkmanship between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump.
powerful blast targeting an armoured Nato convoy in Kabul killed at least eight people and wounded 28 on Wednesday, including three coalition troops, officials said in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group.
The explosion, which came during morning rush hour on a busy road near the US embassy and Nato headquarters, killed “mostly” civilians, an interior ministry spokesman told AFP.
Three coalition service members received “non-life threatening wounds” but are in stable condition, a spokesman for US Forces-afghanistan said.
The attack, claimed by IS via its Amaq propaganda agency, comes three weeks after the US dropped its largest non-nuclear bomb on the jihadist group’s hideouts in eastern Afghanistan, triggering global shockwaves.
Monday’s blast also comes days after the Taliban launched their “spring offensive”, heralding a surge in fighting as the US seeks to craft a new strategy and Nato mulls boosting troop levels to break the “stalemate” against the resurgent militants.
The attack, which IS said was a suicide car bomb and Nato said was an improvised explosive device (IED), damaged two of the convoy’s heavily armoured vehicles and left a small crater in the road.
Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, which are designed to withstand large explosions, are routinely used by international forces moving around Kabul.
At least three civilian cars were also damaged, with one ablaze, while windows were shattered up to several hundred metres away.
Firefighters and ambulances rushed stunned survivors to hospital as President Ashraf Ghani slammed the blast as a “criminal act”.
Last week, two US troops were killed in an operation against IS near where the mother of all bombs was dropped in April.