Posts
US,
Russia Agree On Ceasefire In Southwest Syria
7
July, 2017
With
Presidents Trump and Putin having spoken for over two hours on the
sidelines of the G-20 meeting in Hamburg, well over the 30 minutes
initially scheduled, the US press was going berserk with speculation
what the two asre discussing for so long - surely CNN's anonymous
sources had already disclosed that Trump was about to announce some
tax-efficient handover of the US to Moscow...
...
there was a surprise announcement, because as AP reported, the US and
Russia did announce a cease-fire agreement in southwest Syria.
As
the WSJ adds, the U.S. and Russia have been "meeting secretly in
recent months to discuss setting up what officials call a
de-escalation zone in southwest Syria", in which Syrian
government forces and rebels would be separated in hopes of ending
hostilities in the region.
Officials
hope that the first such zone will help reduce violence and that the
U.S. and Russia can work to set up other zones around the country.
As
AP adds, the
cease-fire is set to take effect July 9 at noon Damascus time, and
"the deal marks a new level of involvement for the U.S. in
trying to resolve Syria’s civil war."
A separate deal to create “de-escalation zones” was brokered between Russia, Turkey and Iran, but not the U.S., but follow-up talks this week in Kazakhstan to finalize a cease-fire in those zones failed to reach a deal.
The U.S. and Russia have been backing opposing sides in Syria’s war.
This
is a positive sign that there is some rapprochement between the two
nations, but John McCain and the neocons won't like it, so expect a
new barrage of unsourced "intel" published by the WaPo and
NYT over the next 24 hours, confirming once again "beyond a
doubt", and without any evidence, that Trump is just a two-bit
KGB spy.
Tillerson:
Putin Asked Trump For Proof Of Russia's Interference In The 2016
Election
7
July, 2017
Update: As
part of the 2+ hour discussion between presidents Trump and Putin, AP
reports that
the Russian
president asked for "proof and evidence" of Moscow's
alleged interference in the 2016 election which Russia denies.
The request was made after Trump confronted Putin about Moscow's
election meddling during their first face-to-face meeting in Germany
on Friday, according to Rex Tillerson who was present in the meeting.
The secretary of state told reporters afterward that Trump opened the
conversation by “raising the concerns of the American people
regarding Russian interference in the 2016 election.”
Putin
once again denied Russian involvement, Tillerson said, but Trump
“pressed” him on the matter “on more than one occasion.”
'President
Putin denied such involvement as I think he has in the past,' he
continued.
The
Russians, speaking after the meeting, claimed that Trump accepted the
denial - but Tillerson did not. Instead he said the issue may simply
be an 'intractable disagreement.' Tillerson also said
the Russians
pushed Trump for proof and evidence of meddling, something which the
president himself had doubted in public as recently as Thursday.
"The
president at this point pressed him and felt like at this point,
let’s talk about how do we go forward,' Tillerson said.
Trump
and Putin agreed to explore a “framework” around which they can
work to better understand these types of cyberthreats, the U.S.
diplomat said.
“The
two leaders agreed that this is a substantial hindrance on the
ability of us to move Russian-U.S. relationships forward and agreed
to exchange further work ?regarding commitments of noninterference in
the affairs of the United States and our democratic process as well
as those of other countries,” Tillerson said. “So more work to be
done in that regard.”
Russian
foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, who was in the meeting, said
afterward that Trump accepted Putin's assurances that Russia didn't
interfere in the election. But Tillerson, who has publicly
called out Russia for election interference in the past, said he was
'not dismissing the issue in any way' and did not echo that
language.
The
secretary of state acknowledged that Putin’s insistence that Russia
did not interfere would leave the two countries at an impasse, at
least for now. “It's not clear to me that we will ever come to some
agreed-upon resolution of that question between the two nations,”
he said.
“So
the question is, what do we do now?”
We
are confident that the US press, which will not let this topic drop,
will come up with some suggestions.
* *
*
Earlier
Following
their first ever, 2+ hour meeting which was originally supposed to
last only 30-40 minutes, the question on everyone's mind was what did
the two discuss.
So,
in addition to the previously discussed ceasefire agreement in
Southwest Syria unexpectedly announced by the two nations, speaking
at the beginning of his meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo
Abe, Vladimir Putin said that during his first meeting with US
President Donald Trump, the two discussed Syria, Ukraine,
counterterrorism, and drumroll, the "fight
against cyber crime."
"I
had a very lengthy conversation with the President of the United
States, there were a lot of issues such as Ukraine, Syria, other
problems, some bilateral issues", according to Interfax
news agency.
"We again returned to the issues of fighting terrorism and
cybersecurity," Putin dded.
Elaborating
after the meeting, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Trump
repeatedly pressed Putin on the matter over the course of their
meeting (see below for details).
Putin
denied Russia’s involvement, and according to a parallel comment
from Russia's Sergey Lavrov, "Trump
accepted Putin's assurance of no election hacking."
Or
as Interfax put it:
- TRUMP ACKNOWLEDGES ANTI-RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN IN U.S. ALREADY LOOKING ODD, THAT HE ACCEPTS PUTIN'S STATEMENTS ON THIS MATTER - LAVROV: IFX
However,
it appears Lavrov may have taken some artistic liberty, because
according to NBC's chief White House correspondent, one
administration official has said Lavrov's comment is "not
accurate"
Pushback already from Trump administration: one official tells @NBCNews Lavrov's "not accurate" w/this comment -->
"A
cease-fire has been entered into," U.S. Secretary of State Rex
Tillerson told reporters. This is the "first indication of the
U.S. and Russia being able to work together in Syria," he said.
Until
now, Putin and Trump had only spoken on the phone. They were not
alone: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of
State Rex Tillerson were also present at the talks.
* *
*
Earlier,
during the press photo session, Trump told the media that "President
Putin and I have been discussing various things, and I think it's
going very well."
“We've
had some very, very good talks, we are going to have a talk now and
obviously that will continue,” Trump added, saying there are hopes
of “a lot of very positive things happening.”
“It's
an honor to be with you, thank you,” Trump concluded, offering his
hand to Putin.
"I’m
delighted to be able to meet you personally Mr. President,” Putin
countered. “And I hope, as you have said, our meeting will yield
positive result."
“Spasibo
[thank you],” the US leader added in Russian.
Addressing
Trump, Putin then said that although the two leaders have “several
times talked over the phone, including on some very important
bilateral and international issues,” phone talks were “obviously
not enough.” Meetings in person are “necessary” if the two
countries want to resolve the “most pressing issues,” Putin dded.
* *
*
Finally,
some additional details first from Rex Tillerson, courtesy of
Bloomberg:
- TILLERSON: U.S., RUSSIA, JORDAN REACHED CEASEFIRE IN SW SYRIA
- RUSSIA HAS SAME INTEREST IN STABLE SYRIA AS U.S.: TILLERSON
- TRUMP NOTED SANCTIONS BILL ONGOING IN PUTIN TALKS: TILLERSON
- NO LONG-TERM ROLE FOR ASSAD, HIS FAMILY, IN SYRIA: TILLERSON
- RUSSIA-U.S. DIFFERENCES IN TACTICS, PACE, ON N.KOREA: TILLERSON
- TILLERSON SAYS TRUMP & PUTIN HAD A GOOD EXCHANGE ON #NORTHKOREA; RUSSIANS SEE IT DIFFERENTLY THAN THE U.S. DOES: RTRS
- TILLERSON SAYS IT IS NOT CLEAR U.S. OR RUSSIA WILL EVER COME TO A RESOLUTION ON THE QUESTION ABOUT ELECTION INTERFERENCE: RTRS
About
the bromance between the two:
- TRUMP, PUTIN CONNECTED QUICKLY, `POSITIVE CHEMISTRY': TILLERSON
- TILLERSON SAYS NEITHER LEADER WANTED TO STOP MEETING, U.S. FIRST LADY CAME IN AT ONE POINT TO TRY TO GET THEM TO CONCLUDE: RTRS
And
the punchline:
- TRUMP RAISED ELECTION MEDDLING, PUTIN DENIED ROLE: TILLERSON
- TRUMP ACCEPTED PUTIN'S ASSURANCE OF NO ELECTION HACKING: LAVROV
And
here is the conversation from the Russian side, in this case Sergey
Lavrov, as reported by Interfax:
- PUTIN, TRUMP HAD VERY CONCRETE CONVERSATION - LAVROV
- LAVROV SAYS HE AND TILLERSON ASKED TO CONTINUE DIALOGUE ON ALL INT'L ISSUES, INCLUDING N. KOREA
- LAVROV: THERE IS UNDERSTANDING ON THREE DE-ESCALATION ZONES IN SYRIA, DIALOGUE CONTINUING ON NORTHERN ZONE
- LAVROV: U.S. AIMS AT IMPLEMENTATION OF MINSK AGREEMENTS - LAVROV
- LAVROV: CONTACTS WITH TRUMP, TILLERSON SHOWED NO SIGN OF U.S. DEPARTING FROM MINSK ACCORDS
- LAVROV: PUTIN, TRUMP AGREE ON CREATION OF BILATERAL WORKING GROUP FOR DEVELOPMENT OF INTERACTION ON BROAD RANGE OF ISSUES, INCLUDING CYBER SECURITY
- LAVROV: WE WILL CONTINUE SEEKING SOLUTION TO PROBLEM OF RUSSIAN DIPLOMATIC PROPERTY IN U.S
- RUSSIA, U.S. AGREE TO SPEED UP THEIR AMBASSADOR APPOINTMENT PROCEDURES - LAVROV
- LAVROV: STATE SOVEREIGNTY TO BE ENSURED IN CREATION OF DE-ESCALATION ZONE IN SOUTHERN SYRIA
- LAVROV: WE HOPE U.S. ENVOY FOR UKRAINE WILL ARRIVE IN MOSCOW FOR CONSULTATIONS SOON
- LAVROV: AGREEMENT REACHED TO CREATE RUSSIAN-U.S. CHANNEL FOR UKRAINIAN SETTLEMENT
- LAVROV: SECURITY IN DE-ESCALATION ZONE IN SOUTHERN SYRIA WILL BE ENSURED USING RUSSIAN POLICE, U.S. AND JORDANIAN FORCES
- LAVROV: RUSSIAN, U.S. EXPERTS IN JORDAN ON FRIDAY FINISHED WORK OF AGREEING ON DE-ESCALATION AREAS IN SOUTHWEST SYRIA
- LAVROV: PUTIN AND TRUMP ARE DRIVEN BY NATIONAL INTERESTS, AIM AT MUTUAL AGREEMENTS
- TRUCE IN SOUTHERN SYRIA TO BE EFFECTIVE FROM MIDNIGHT JULY 9 - LAVROV
- LAVROV: PUTIN, TRUMP DEMONSTRATED THAT THEY HAVE NO INTENTION OF CREATING PROBLEMS OUT OF NOTHING FOR TWO COUNTRIES
And
the only line that matters on this side:
- TRUMP ACKNOWLEDGES ANTI-RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN IN U.S. ALREADY LOOKING ODD, THAT HE ACCEPTS PUTIN'S STATEMENTS ON THIS MATTER - LAVROV
In
summary: Putin denied hacking the US election, and "Trump
accepted Putin's assurance" at least according to the Russian
side. We now await the howls of outrage from the US media.
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