Trump and Putin discuss cease-fire in Syria in first conversation since U.S. airstrikes

MOSCOW — In their first publicly announced conversation since the United States launched a Tomahawk cruise-missile strike in Syria last month, President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the humanitarian crisis in Syria in a phone call Tuesday, with both countries expressing interest in working toward a cease-fire in the region.

The two men also discussed the possibility of trying to organize a personal meeting at the Group of 20 summit in Hamburg in July, according to the White House and the Kremlin.

The phone call came amid escalating tensions between Russia and the United States in recent weeks, following a targeted military strike on a Syrian air base in April that Trump ordered in retaliation for a sarin nerve-agent attack allegedly carried out by the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

“President Trump and President Putin 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 White House said in a readout of the call.

The White House described the conversation as “a very good one,” while the Kremlin called it “businesslike and constructive.”

But the dueling readouts contained some discrepancies.

 

Read the whole story from The Washington Post.

Featured image courtesy of Reuters