(English) ISIS brings Putin, Obama together

Antalya, Turkey Russia pummeled ISIS sites in Syria Tuesday, including targeting the terror organization’s self-proclaimed capital city of Raqqa and deploying dozens of cruise missiles.
Though Russia has for weeks claimed that its campaign in Syria was aimed at ISIS and other terrorists, the U.S. has until now said that the strikes were largely aimed at rebels opposing Kremlin ally President Bashar al-Assad. But following ISIS’s claim of responsibility for the downing of a Russian passenger plane, which Moscow confirmed Tuesday was caused by a bomb, the Russian attacks now seem to be hitting actual terror targets.
“It may be now, having seen ISIL take down one of their airliners in a horrific accident, that that reorientation continues,” President Barack Obama said during a press conference in Manila Wednesday. “From the start, I’ve also welcomed Moscow going after ISIL. The problem has been that in their initial military incursion into Syria, they’ve been more focused on propping up Mr. Assad and targeting the modern opposition as opposed to targeting those folks that threaten us, Europe and Russia as well.”
The assault was just the latest sign that the strained and at times hostile relationship between the U.S. and Russia might now be thawing as antagonism gives way to common interests. And it’s not just on the battlefield that the change seems apparent — Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin had a markedly warmer exchange at the G20 in Turkey this week than in other recent encounters, and both sides indicated a willingness to do more to work together.
At a meeting Monday, the two men flashed toothy smiles at each other and erupted in quick bursts of laughter — a far cry from virtually every photographed interaction between the leaders in the past several years, including an awkward handshake shared just six weeks ago at the United Nations General Assembly.
And on the sidelines of the world leaders’ summit Sunday, Obama and Putin sat inches across from each other at a small table, perched on the edge of deep leather chairs by a hotel bar, as they spoke animatedly for 30 minutes in what White House officials deemed a “constructive conversation” that centered on Syria.
In a change of tone for the administration, a White House official said Putin expressed support for a Syrian-led transition away from the Assad government, a key step toward reconciling the two countries’ opposing views of Damascus’s political future.
We’re going to wait to see whether, in fact, Russia does end up devoting attention to targets that are ISIL targets, and if it does so, then that’s something we welcome,” the President said when asked about the United States working with Russia Wednesday — slightly hedging the original White House optimism. “That’s exactly what I’ve been arguing for since we set up this anti-ISIL coalition and that’s what I’ve been arguing to all our coordination partners and those who have not been in the coalition over the last several years.”