Politics
Tough negotiations on Syria expected between Obama and Putin at G8 summit
U.S. President Barack Obama, (l), greets Russia’s President Vladimir Putin at the G-20 Summit in Los Cabos, Mexico, Monday, June 18, 2012. PHOTO/Alexei Nikolsky/RIA-Novosti,Presidential Press Service
(Reuters) – President Barack Obama will seek the help on Monday of Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Syria’s most powerful ally, to bring Bashar al Assad to the negotiating table and end a two-year civil war.
At their first private face-to-face meeting in a year, Obama will try to find common ground with Putin on the sidelines of a G8 summit in Northern Ireland after angering the Kremlin by authorizing U.S. military support for the Syrian president’s opponents.
During talks with British Prime Minister David Cameron in London on the eve of the summit, Putin renewed his criticism of the West’s position in startling tones, describing Assad’s foes as cannibals.
“I think you will not deny that one does not really need to support the people who not only kill their enemies, but open up their bodies, eat their intestines, in front of the public and cameras,” Putin said at a joint news conference with Cameron.
“Are these the people you want to support? Is it them who you want to supply with weapons?”
Cameron conceded London and Moscow remained far apart.
Russia does not buy the West’s assertion that Assad’s forces have used chemical weapons and crossed a red line in doing so, saying U.S. military support for Syrian rebels would only escalate violence.
