US President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin have discussed Russia’s partial planned troop withdrawal from Syria, the White House says.
“They discussed President Putin’s announcement today of a partial withdrawal of Russian forces from Syria and next steps required to fully implement the cessation of hostilities,” the White House said in a statement on Monday.
The statement came only hours after Putin announced to withdraw “the main part” of his country’s military contingent deployed to Syria.
“At this point, we are going to see how things play out over the next few days,” a senior US administration official told AFP, offering a cautious initial assessment of the Russian leader’s decision.
Since March 2011, the US and its regional allies, in particular Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey, have been conducting a proxy war against Syria. The conflict has left somewhere between 270,000 to 470,000 Syrians dead and half of the…