Obama, Putin React to Damascus Bombing
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Pete Souza/The White House(WASHINGTON) — The White House announced Wednesday that President Obama spoke by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the earlier explosion in Damascus that killed Syria’s defense minister and two other government officials, including the brother-in-law of President Bashar al-Assad.
At his daily press briefing, administration spokesman Jay Carney said the two leaders “agreed on the need to support a political transition as soon as possible that achieves our shared goal of ending the violence and avoiding a further deterioration of the situation.”
Washington and Moscow have been at loggerheads over how to handle the conflict in Syria now in its 17th month with as many as 17,000 people having died in the fighting between al-Assad’s forces and rebels intent on removing him from power.
Carney said that Obama and Putin would be working harder toward finding a solution even as the situation in Syria is “spinning out of control.”
The press secretary said it’s Obama’s opinion that Wednesday’s bombing proved that there will be no let-up in violence until a political transition has taken place, a point the U.S. is trying to get Moscow and Beijing to accept.
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