Putin and Obama trade barbs at Syria-focused UN meeting

The Kremlin and the White House share concerns about ISIL but disagree on strategy

New York, United States - US President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, jibed at each other at an annual UN meeting, alongside signs that the two leaders may be inching towards compromises on Syria's civil war.
They spoke at an opening session of the UN General Assembly that featured back-to-back speeches from so many leaders - including the presidents of Brazil, China, Iran and France - that it was dubbed "massive Monday".
Obama said Moscow's annexation of Crimea had left the country more isolated and poorer, with ever-greater numbers of Russians leaving the country.
"Imagine if instead, Russia had engaged in true diplomacy," the US president said.
For his part, Putin pointed to the US-led invasion of Iraq and the Western-backed rebellion in Libya that contributed to "violence, poverty and a social disaster" across the region and huge refugee flows into Europe.
They also clashed over Syria, where President Bashar al-Assad is accused of barrel bombing civilians and other atrocities in a war that has claimed about 250,000 lives since it erupted in 2011.
Putin told delegates that there was no alternative to cooperating with Damascus.
"No one but Assad's forces are truly fighting IS and other terrorist groups in Syria," he told delegates, using an acronym for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group that controls swaths of Syria and Iraq.
'Managed transition'
During his speech, Obama did not explicitly call for Assad's ouster and he suggested there could be a "managed transition" away from his rule - a sign that the US may be willing to see Assad stay for some period of time.

Syria war dominates UN summit

"The United States is prepared to work with any nation, including Russia and Iran, to resolve the conflict," said Obama, who spoke before Putin. "But we must recognise that there cannot be, after so much bloodshed, so much carnage, a return to the prewar status quo."

It was not all animosity. The two leaders clinked glasses containing sparkling rose wine and dined on caramelised short ribs at a lunch hosted by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Later, after the first face-to-face meeting between Putin and Obama in two years, a senior US official said the two sides "fundamentally disagreed" on the role that Assad will play in resolving the conflict.
"The Russians see Mr Assad as a bulwark against extremists; the Americans see Mr Assad as continuing to fan the flames of a sectarian conflict there," the official told reporters.