Trump, Putin discuss ending Syria war amid ongoing tensions

Washington D.C. [United States], May 3 : United States President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in a telephonic conversation on Tuesday discussed about ending the ongoing war in Syria for the first time since the former had ordered a missile strike on Syrian military airfield last month.

President Trump and his Russian counterpart agreed that the suffering in Syria has gone on for far too long and that all parties must do all they can to end the violence.

"The conversation was a very good one, and included the discussion of safe, or de-escalation, zones to achieve lasting peace for humanitarian and many other reasons," The White House said in a statement.

"The United States will be sending a representative to the cease-fire talks in Astana, Kazakhstan on May 3-4," the statement added.

The two leaders also discussed at length working together to eradicate terrorism throughout the Middle East.

They also spoke about the best possible way to resolve the dangerous situation in North Korea. The talk emphasised on future coordination of Russian and U.S. actions to fight international terrorism in the context of the Syrian crisis. "It was agreed to bolster the dialogue between the heads of the two nations' foreign policy agencies in an effort to find ways to stabilise the ceasefire and make it durable and manageable.

The aim is to create preconditions for launching a real settlement process in Syria. To that end, the Russian Foreign Minister and the US Secretary of State shall promptly brief the countries' leaders on any progress achieved," the Kremlin readout of the call said.

President Putin called for restraint and an easing of tensions between the two sides. The two countries agreed to organise joint work aimed at achieving diplomatic solutions and a comprehensive settlement of the problem.

President Putin and Trump agreed to continue their telephone contacts and spoke in favour of arranging a personal meeting during the G20 Summit in Hamburg on July 7-8.

"The conversation was businesslike and constructive," the Kremlin said in a statement. This is not the first time that both the leaders had a telephonic conversation, Trump and Putin earlier held phone talks twice after Trump's inauguration.

The call comes at a time when the relations between the U.S. and Russia are in hot waters. Trump accused Bashar al-Assad regime of carrying out the chemical attack, while both Russia and Damascus have denied the Syrian government role in the barbaric chemical weapons attack that killed 70 people.

Trump had stated that "United States is not getting along with Russia at all "and relations between the countries may be at an all time low".

(NAI).

Source: ANI