President Barack Obama said the U.S. has reached an agreement with Russia to avoid clashes in the skies as their air forces conduct bombing raids in Syria, though he added that the world powers remain far apart in their approach to the conflict.“The only understanding that we’ve arrived at is how do we ‘deconflict’ in the event that our planes and their planes might be occupying similar space over Syrian skies,” Obama said Friday at a White House news conference. “So in that sense we’ve arrived at an understanding and some channels for communication. Where we will continue to differ is in the basic set of principles and strategies we’re pursuing inside of Syria.”
He spoke hours after Russia said the parties were close to signing the accord on military-to-military communications.“All the technical details have been already agreed and now Russian and U.S. lawyers are checking the text of the document,” Colonel General Andrei Kartapolov said, according to a statement on the Russian Defense Ministry’s website. “We expect this document to be signed very soon.”
Russia began air strikes in Syria on Sept. 30 to support the regime of Bashar al-Assad against an array of groups it calls terrorists, including some supported by the U.S. and its allies. The U.S. has focused its campaign on Islamic State and has said Assad must step down as part of a political settlement to the war.
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