Putin, Obama Discuss Syria Solutions

Russian president Vladimir Putin said Monday that he and President Obama have a shared understanding on how to approach a political settlement in Syria, the AP reports, but added that Turkey’s ulterior motives risk ruining any chance of a broader coalition.

Meeting on the sidelines of a climate summit in France, the two leaders discussed compiling a list of extremist groups and one of members of legitimate political opposition.

“We have an understanding how we should proceed if we talk about a political settlement. We need to work on a new (Syrian) constitution, new elections and the control of their outcome,” Putin said.

However, he said that events such as last week’s downing of a Russian fighter jet by Turkey would hamper broader cooperation against extremism in the region, calling the event a “treacherous stab in the back.”

The Russian leader accused Turkey of shooting down the plane to protect the state’s illegal imports of Islamic State-produced oil.

“We have every reason to believe that a decision to shoot down our plane was prompted by a desire to ensure security of that oil to the territory of Turkey and on to sea ports for loading into tankers,” he said.

“Our pilots write on their bombs: ‘For ours!’ and ‘For Paris!’” Putin said. “And the Turkish air force shoots down our bomber! What kind of broad coalition can we talk about then?”

Islamic Militants Clash with Kurds in Aleppo

U.S.-backed rebels clashed with Islamist groups in Aleppo, leaving at least 23 fighters dead, AFP reports.

Militants belonging to Islamist groups including the al-Qaida-affiliated al-Nusra Front attacked posts Sunday belonging to Jaish al-Thuwwar, an Arab rebel group allied with the newly created Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a coalition of Syrian Arab and Kurdish rebel groups backed by the United States.

Fifteen fighters from al-Nusra Front and its allies were killed, in addition to at least eight members of the SDF.

The attack, which took place along the Turkish border, led to sporadic fighting that drew in further members of the SDF alliance. Al-Nusra and its Islamist allies reportedly fired rockets into the Kurdish district of Aleppo city.

Although the U.S. has championed the SDF as a broad alliance between Syrian Arabs and Kurds, the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) is by far the dominant force.

Syria’s Kurdish minority, which has played a key role in the U.S.-backed coalition’s fight against the Islamic State, has long had rocky relations with armed opposition groups in the country.

The Kurds never joined the uprising against Bashar al-Assad, and refused to allow rebel groups to operate in Kurdish-majority regions, from which the government withdrew in 2012. Instead, the minority group has focused on building political and military autonomy.

Syria Did Not Use Chemical Weapons in Civil War: Damascus

Syria on Monday denied its troops have ever used chemical weapons in its five-year civil war, AFP reports.

A representative from Damascus told the annual meeting of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) that the Assad government was fully cooperating with the ordered destruction of its weapons stockpile.

“We wish here to state categorically that we have never used chlorine or any other toxic chemicals during any incidents or any other operations in the Syrian Arab Republic since the beginning of the crisis and up to this very day,” deputy foreign minister Faisal Moqdad told the OPCW.

The accusations against the Assad government, added Moqdad, “only serve political agendas, which also aim at diverting our successes in eliminating our chemical weapons.”

Western countries, including the U.S., Canada and the E.U., have raised doubts as to whether the Syrian government is truthful about its dedication to ridding the country of chemical arms.

E.U. representative Jacek Bylica told the OPCW meeting at the Hague, “[There are] many uncertainties regarding the dismantling of Syria’s chemical weapons program, notably the gaps and contradictions contained in Syria’s declarations.”

Recommended Reads

• Al-Monitor: Turkey Gambles on the Turkmens
• Time: Russian Airstrikes in Syria Seem to Be Hurting Civilians More Than ISIS
• The New York Times: Syria Question Exposes Bitter Divide in Britain’s Labour Party
• The Independent: War with Isis: Obama Demands Turkey Closes Stretch of Border with Syria
• The Spectator: Yes, There Are 70,000 Moderate Opposition Fighters in Syria. Here’s What We Know About Them

Top image: Russian president Vladimir Putin speaks to the media after the U.N. Conference on Climate Change in Paris, France, on Monday, Nov. 30, 2015. Putin said Monday that he and President Obama have a shared understanding on how to move toward a political settlement in Syria, but added that incidents such as the recent downing of a Russian warplane by a Turkish fighter jet hinder broader cooperation against extremism. (Mikhail Klimentyev/Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)