Putin says he can work with Obama despite trading barbs on Syria and Isis

Vladimir Putin emerged from a rare face-to-face meeting with Barack Obama on Monday night, saying Russia and the US could find a way to work together on Syria, despite deep differences over the country’s leadership.

The US-Russian summit lasted 94 minutes, more than half an hour longer than planned, on the sidelines of the United Nations general assembly where the two leaders had traded barbs only hours before, particularly over the future of the Syrian leader, Bashar al-Assad.

Speaking to Russian journalists after the meeting, Putin said the two had found at least some common ground on the four-year conflict.

The Russian leader described the conversation with Obama as “very constructive, businesslike and very frank”.

We had some points in common, and we had differences,” Putin said, according to a translation by the Russia Today satellite channel. “I think there is still a way we can work together on the problems we all face.

He rejected calls earlier in the day from Obama and the French president, Francois Hollande, for Assad to stand down as part of a concerted campaign against Islamic State and other violent extremists.

I respect my colleagues, the US president and the French president, but I don’t think they are Syrian citizens, so I don’t think they should be deciding on who should lead Syria,” he said.

However, Putin showed more flexibility than he had in his general assembly speech, acknowledging that political reform in Damascus could be part of a solution, but indicated that Assad would be a willing participant in that change.

There can be simultaneous, political change, but President Assad has already said he agrees with that,” Putin said.

A senior US administration official later said the meeting between the two presidents had been “business-like” and “focused”.

This was not a situation where either one of them was seeking to score points in a meeting,” the official said. “I think there was a shared desire to figure out a way in which we can address the situation in Syria.

We have clarity on their objectives. Their objectives are to go after Isil and to support the government.”

Earlier in the day, Obama and Putin had clashed in an exchange of blunt rhetoricas they vied for global leadership on Syria and the fight against Isis.