President Vladimir Putin (1952- ) and US President Barack Obama (1964- ) at the 2012 G20 Summit at Los Cabos (Baja California Sur) MEXICO.
_____________________________
On Tuesday, President Vladimir Putin and US President Barack Obama made a joint call for an immediate cessation of the violence in Syria, but their appeal included no new proposals for achieving it. In a joint statement following their first meeting since Putin retook office last month, the two leaders said the Syrian people should be allowed “independently and democratically” to determine their own future. The appeal made no mention, however, of the future of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whom Washington wants to see depart, and Russia continues to supply with weapons. After a meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Los Cabos in Mexico, they said, “In order to stop the bloodshed in Syria, we call for an immediate cessation of the violence and express full support for the efforts of the UN/Arab League joint special envoy Kofi Annan, including on moving forward on political transition to a democratic pluralist political system that’d be implemented by the Syrians themselves, in the framework of Syrian sovereignty, independence, unity, and territorial integrity”.
However, behind their consensual statement, the two leaders offered little sign of narrowing their differences on how to resolve the 15-month-old crisis that UN estimates say has resulted in more than 12,000 deaths. Russia… along with China… has twice vetoed United Nations resolutions against Syria over what it said was their pro-rebel bias. Moscow’s also made it clear that it won’t sanction the kind of Western military intervention in Syria that helped overthrow Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi last year. Yet, Moscow is fully behind the Annan plan, which calls for the withdrawal of heavy weaponry from urban areas and a ceasefire to end the spiralling violence there. On Monday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that at least 94 people died in clashes throughout across Syria.
Putin was particularly tight-lipped after a two-hour meeting with Obama on Tuesday. Speaking through an interpreter, he described his discussions with the US leader as “meaningful and subject-oriented”, and said the two nations had found “many commonalities” on Syria. The US has publicly condemned Russia for what it sees as the Kremlin‘s shielding of Syria, a long-time arms customer and regional ally. Nevertheless, a White House spokesman said the disagreements over Syria shouldn’t “overwhelm” the areas of common interest between Russian and the USA. Jay Carney told reporters that these include expanding trade and investment between the two nations and continuing discussions on US plans to deploy a missile defence system in Europe, spokesman. However, Carney insisted that political transition in Syria “needs to include Bashar al-Assad stepping down from power”.
Last week, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reiterated that Russia had no special interest in seeing Assad remain in power. He also said that continuing weapons deliveries to Syria were of an “exclusively” defensive nature. Over the weekend, Nezavisimaya Gazeta reported that two Russian amphibious assault ships were preparing to set sail for the Syrian port of Tartus, where Russia has its only naval base outside the former USSR, possibly to evacuate Russian nationals if Assad falls. Russian officials haven’t verified this information.
On Tuesday, the US and Russian leaders also said that Iran must make “serious efforts” to restore international confidence in the peaceful nature of its disputed uranium enrichment activities, which Washington and its allies fear are part of a nuclear weapons programme. On North Korea, the two leaders pledged to continue efforts to achieve denuclearisation on the Korean peninsula, and warned Pyongyang against escalating tensions in the area.
19 June 2012
RIA-Novosti
http://en.rian.ru/world/20120619/174118746.html
Voices from Russia 
Putin and Obama Urge Peace in Syria… No Deal on Assad
Tags: Barack Obama, Bashar al-Assad, Jay Carney, Kofi Annan, Mexico, North Korea, North Korean nuclear program, political commentary, politics, Russia, Russian, Syria, Syrian Civil War, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, United Nations, United States, USA, Vladimir Putin
President Vladimir Putin (1952- ) and US President Barack Obama (1964- ) at the 2012 G20 Summit at Los Cabos (Baja California Sur) MEXICO.
_____________________________
On Tuesday, President Vladimir Putin and US President Barack Obama made a joint call for an immediate cessation of the violence in Syria, but their appeal included no new proposals for achieving it. In a joint statement following their first meeting since Putin retook office last month, the two leaders said the Syrian people should be allowed “independently and democratically” to determine their own future. The appeal made no mention, however, of the future of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whom Washington wants to see depart, and Russia continues to supply with weapons. After a meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Los Cabos in Mexico, they said, “In order to stop the bloodshed in Syria, we call for an immediate cessation of the violence and express full support for the efforts of the UN/Arab League joint special envoy Kofi Annan, including on moving forward on political transition to a democratic pluralist political system that’d be implemented by the Syrians themselves, in the framework of Syrian sovereignty, independence, unity, and territorial integrity”.
However, behind their consensual statement, the two leaders offered little sign of narrowing their differences on how to resolve the 15-month-old crisis that UN estimates say has resulted in more than 12,000 deaths. Russia… along with China… has twice vetoed United Nations resolutions against Syria over what it said was their pro-rebel bias. Moscow’s also made it clear that it won’t sanction the kind of Western military intervention in Syria that helped overthrow Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi last year. Yet, Moscow is fully behind the Annan plan, which calls for the withdrawal of heavy weaponry from urban areas and a ceasefire to end the spiralling violence there. On Monday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that at least 94 people died in clashes throughout across Syria.
Putin was particularly tight-lipped after a two-hour meeting with Obama on Tuesday. Speaking through an interpreter, he described his discussions with the US leader as “meaningful and subject-oriented”, and said the two nations had found “many commonalities” on Syria. The US has publicly condemned Russia for what it sees as the Kremlin‘s shielding of Syria, a long-time arms customer and regional ally. Nevertheless, a White House spokesman said the disagreements over Syria shouldn’t “overwhelm” the areas of common interest between Russian and the USA. Jay Carney told reporters that these include expanding trade and investment between the two nations and continuing discussions on US plans to deploy a missile defence system in Europe, spokesman. However, Carney insisted that political transition in Syria “needs to include Bashar al-Assad stepping down from power”.
Last week, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reiterated that Russia had no special interest in seeing Assad remain in power. He also said that continuing weapons deliveries to Syria were of an “exclusively” defensive nature. Over the weekend, Nezavisimaya Gazeta reported that two Russian amphibious assault ships were preparing to set sail for the Syrian port of Tartus, where Russia has its only naval base outside the former USSR, possibly to evacuate Russian nationals if Assad falls. Russian officials haven’t verified this information.
On Tuesday, the US and Russian leaders also said that Iran must make “serious efforts” to restore international confidence in the peaceful nature of its disputed uranium enrichment activities, which Washington and its allies fear are part of a nuclear weapons programme. On North Korea, the two leaders pledged to continue efforts to achieve denuclearisation on the Korean peninsula, and warned Pyongyang against escalating tensions in the area.
19 June 2012
RIA-Novosti
http://en.rian.ru/world/20120619/174118746.html
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