President Obama spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin Monday after Moscow committed to withdrawing the bulk of its troops from Syria beginning Tuesday.
Putin’s news coincides with the resumption of peace talks in Geneva aimed at ending the five-year civil war.
“Obama welcomed the much-needed reduction in violence since the beginning of the cessation, but stressed that continuing offensive actions by Syrian regime forces risk undermining both the [cease-fire] and the U.N.-led political process,” the White House stated after the call.
Russia’s military involvement in Syria has mostly bolstered the position of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad.
Obama also “emphasized the need for regime forces to allow unimpeded access for humanitarian assistance delivery [and] underscored that a political transition is required to end the violence in Syria,” the White House stated.
“[A]s long as Russia was aggressively weighing in militarily, they were removing, at least part of, the incentive for the regime to even engage in those kinds of conversations,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said earlier Monday about participation in the talks by Assad’s government.
Secretary of State John Kerry was in the Middle East over the weekend drumming up support for long-term peace talks and to bolster the fragile cease-fire.
Obama and Putin also discussed the conflict in Ukraine.
“Obama emphasized the need for combined Russian-separatist forces to implement the cease-fire in eastern Ukraine and to provide [international] monitors… unfettered access to separatist-controlled areas, including the Russia-Ukraine border,” the White House stated.
