US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Saturday agreed that they needed to work together on Syria, a US official said. "They both agreed that we've got to work together," the official said, following a telephone conversation between Clinton and Lavrov.
"Her message to him was: 'We've got to start working together to help the Syrians with Syria's political transition strategy. And I want our people to work together on ideas in Moscow, Europe, in Washington, wherever we need to'." Tensions between the United States and Russia have risen sharply since a May 25 massacre in Syria, with Moscow holding firm in the face of US charges that it has emboldened Bashar al-Assad's regime. Russia and Iran are Syria's primary allies and the United States has ramped up criticism since the massacre in pro-opposition Houla, where gunmen rounded up and killed 108 people, 49 of them children.