Not quite eye-to-eye over Syria
But Russian says ‘all of us’ want war over
President Obama, Russian President Vladimir Putin meet Monday in Northern Ireland. Though they don’t agree on whom to support, both want Syria’s civil war to end.
Russian President Vladimir Putin told President Obama in a meeting of top nations Monday that he does not agree with Obama’s decision to provide military aid to Syrian rebels but supports negotiations to end Syria’s civil war.
Speaking after talks with Putin, Obama acknowledged in a bilateral meeting with Putin in Northern Ireland that they have a “different perspective” on Syria. But he said both leaders wanted to address the fierce fighting and also wanted to secure chemical weapons in the country.
Obama and Putin met on Syria while attending the Group of Eight summit of industrialized nations in Northern Ireland.
Obama said both sides would work to develop talks in Geneva aimed at ending the country’s bloody civil war.
“We do have differing perspectives on the problem, but we share an interest in reducing the violence, securing chemical weapons and ensuring that they’re neither used nor are they subject to proliferation,” Obama said. “We want to try to resolve the issue through political means if possible.”
Said Putin: “Of course our opinions do not coincide, but all of us have the intention to stop the violence in Syria and to stop the growth of victims and to solve the situation peacefully, including by bringing the parties to the negotiations table in Geneva.”
Russia is backing Syrian dictator Bashar Assad with arms and heavy weaponry that have been used to crush rebel advances. Obama announced last week he would assist the rebels because of Assad’s use of chemical weapons against them.
Foreign affairs analysts say a major breakthrough on what action to take in the civil war-torn country is unlikely. “I don’t expect a major breakthrough on Syria, even though both camps will likely stress their common interests, their preference for a political solution ... and the need for a peace conference,” said Fawaz Gerges, director of the Middle East Centre at the London School of Economics.
Seven of the G-8 nations support the rebels and say Assad must go. Putin accused British Prime Minister David Cameron on Sunday of betraying humanitarian values by supporting Syrian rebels with “blood on their hands.”
Russia and the West have long been at odds over Syria. As the violence continues to escalate in the region, Putin expressed anger at the U.S. commitment to supply small arms and ammunition to rebels as a result of the U.S. saying there was proof Assad’s regime had used chemical weapons on its citizens.
Putin described Assad’s government as “the legitimate government of Syria in full conformity with the norms of international law.”
Moscow continues to stick to the principle of non-interference in what it calls Syria’s “internal affairs,” a position it has held since the beginning of the uprising, said Anna Borshchevskaya, a fellow at the European Foundation for Democracy.
“Russia has too much vested in the current Syrian regime to let it go. Moscow still views Assad as perhaps its closest Arab ally in the Middle East, with deep cultural, historical and business connections between the two,” she said.
The United States vowed in March 2011 that it would not intervene in Syria as it had in Libya but said the U.S. could change its position if the regime used chemical weapons. News of chemical weapons attacks carried out by Assad’s regime surfaced in April.