Obama, Putin meet in China; Syrian truce talks fail again

US President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin have met in China, after American and Russian diplomats failed to reach an agreement over easing the fighting in Syria.​

Another round of talks between Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov were held on Monday on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Hangzhou, China, but it ended without producing a tangible result, according to a senior State Department official.

Kerry and Lavrov also met on Sunday but the two officials could not reach an agreement on ending the years-long conflict in Syria.

The US side blamed Moscow for reversing its position on the issues it thought were settled. "Russians walked back on some of the areas we thought we were agreed on, so we are going back to capitals to consult,” an America diplomat said.

The two sides had already mentioned that they are still at odds over certain subjects. A thorny issue is a new cease-fire deal in Aleppo.

After the meeting of Kerry and Lavrov, Obama and Putin held a meeting on Monday on the margins the G-20 summit. 

The two leaders reportedly discussed crises in Syria, as well as Ukraine. Their discussion wasn’t a formal meeting.It was their first face-to-face meeting in nearly a year.

According to a senior Obama administration official, who wanted to remain anonymous while discussing the private talks, Obama and Putin agreed to continue negotiations over the cease-fire agreement for Syria.

SS