Putin, Obama discussed separation of terrorists and opposition in Syria - Bogdanov

SOCHI, October 25. /TASS/. Separation of terrorists and the opposition in Syria was discussed at the level of Russian and U.S. presidents, Russian presidential representative for the Middle East and Africa, Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said at a meeting of the discussion club Valdai on Tuesday. He was speaking in response to a question from political scientist Pyotr Dutkevich as to whether it was true that at the Putin-Obama meeting on the sidelines of the Group of Twenty summit in China’s Hangzhou in early September the U.S. leader promised to ensure the separation within seven days, adding that if that did not happen, Russia would have a free hand to resume combat operations in Aleppo and around it. "The question of separating terrorists, first and foremost, Jabhat al-Nusra and the moderate opposition has been discussed for many months. It was considered at all levels - by Putin and Obama, too. And it was discussed at all other levels, with U.S. Department of State, CIA and Pentagon officials," Bogdanov said. "As far as we understand, and our American partners said that too that there were different approaches between U.S. agencies but in the long run it is up to the president to consolidate these approaches and voice the country’s final official position," the Russian diplomat said, adding that this question should be referred to the United States’ representatives in order to have their vision of the problem. According to the Russian diplomat, the problem of separation of Syria’s moderate opposition from terrorists was discussed with CIA Director John Brennan when he visited Moscow as far back as February 2016 and he vowed the U.S. side would spare no effort to do that. "The question of where to deliver strikes has always been topical and our leaders told journalists more than once that a year after the American had launched their operation, bombardments in Syria, and did it without the Syrian government’s consent, without a mandate from the United Nations Security Council, our aerospace forces began their operation we were accused of bombing terrorists," Bogdanov said. "We told our American partners back then, ‘If you know where terrorists are, tell us their locations.’ They answered, ‘No, you are bombing the moderate opposition.’ We said, ‘Please tell us where the moderate opposition is so that we spare them.’ And this talk continued for months. Then, it became evident that both terrorists and the opposition stay in one place and they are not separated from each other, maybe they even have understanding of what to do. So, the problem of separation was very topical for the Americans too." "In the long run, we have wasted too much time since February believing all these promises and agreements on ceasefire not only in Aleppo but in the entire country to hear the Americans say they don’t have enough time and that, regrettably, even the opposition cannot withdraw because many Syrian opposition groups do not obey, because there are other regional countries, such as Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar which are supporting the opposition and need to be talked with," he said. "We spoke with them too. I have already said that in Lausanne there was a meeting with regional players who have contacts with the moderate opposition. And they, too, promised to take effort." "We agreed to continue work in the five-lateral format in Geneva at the expert level - we, the Americans, the Qatari, the Saudi and the Turks - to coordinate concrete aspects of the separation of the opposition from terrorists. So, these issues have really been discussed at various level," Bogdanov said, adding that, regrettably, no separation has taken place as of yet. Read more