Russian leader Vladimir Putin and US President Barack Obama were unable to resolve their differences on Syria in a phone talk Wednesday following a Damascus bomb attack, the Kremlin said. "Differences in approaches remain that concern practical steps in achieving a settlement," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies.
The Kremlin spokesman provided few details of the phone call except to say that it was initiated by Obama and included a "detailed discussion of Syria in which the recent escalation was noted".
Peskov said the conversation showed that the two leaders "have a coinciding view of the general satiation in Syria (and agree) on the end goal of reaching a settlement." But the spokesman made no mention of Russia's refusal to back firmer action against Assad or of Obama's insistence of imposing sanctions against his regime should it fail to comply with the most urgent points of a peace plan drafted by mediator Kofi Annan.