Russia continues to shape the story of the Helsinki summit



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Russia provided further details Friday of what she said were agreements made at the presidential summit in Helsinki this week, shaping a narrative of the meeting without confirmation or an alternative account. Trump administration.

Russia has already sent formal proposals to Washington for the joint efforts of the United States and Russia to finance the reconstruction of war-torn Syria and facilitate the return of millions of people. Syrians who fled the country, following "agreements reached" by President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Colonel General Mikhail Mizintsev, the three-star chief of the Russian National Defense Management Center, said Friday. Moscow at a joint meeting of the planners of the Ministries of Defense and Foreign Affairs, said that Russia had already started working on the ground in US Ambbadador to Russia, Anatoly Antonov, said separately that Syria had been the main subject of the Trump-Putin conversations, with "the elimination of concerns that the United States"

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Administration officials have repeatedly said in the that no aid to American or European reconstruction would be granted to a part of Syria that remains under Russian control. "Asked about Russia's badertions that agreements had been concluded, a Word of the National Security Council said: "As President Trump said, both sides agreed that the Security Council staffs would attend the meetings. presidents. and these discussions are ongoing. No commitment to undertake concrete actions, beyond agreement on further discussions between the parties. "

The spokesman, under the guise of anonymity, said that the NSC and its Russian counterparts were continuing a working dialogue." To consider Putin's suggestions for a new "cyber-group" and "restart an anti-terrorist group ". The two leaders also discussed forming groups of businessmen and retired diplomats and military personnel to provide ideas for cooperation. 19659009] US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters that "President Trump and President Putin discussed the resolution in Syria and how we could recover the refugees." He did not provide details.

Pompeo says "happy" that Trump wants the Russian leader to visit Washington this fall to continue their talks. "Russia and Iran have allowed Assad to decimate the Syrian opposition forces, once backed by the United States, with air strikes and land forces that have been blamed for most of civilians, "he said. displacement and death in the seven-year civil war in Syria. The withdrawal of Iranian forces "all over Syria" is at the top of Iran's strategy of administration, recently spelled out in an important speech by Pompeo in May, and persuading Russia to help achieve this goal has been a key justification for the administration. The Pentagon and US allies in the region have repelled Trump's stated desire to remove the relatively small US military contingent currently in Syria, where he has organized and armed local forces to fight the Islamic State. The abduction of US forces on the ground, which currently numbers about 2,200 people, is considered a reduction of US influence over Russia and Iran

. intelligence does not believe that the Russians will deliver. "We have badessed that it is unlikely that Russia will have the will or ability to fully implement and counter Iranian decisions and influence," said National Intelligence Director Daniel on Thursday. Coats, at the Aspen Security Forum. "Russia should make significantly larger commitments [in Syria] from a military point of view, from an economic point of view," he said. "We do not evaluate that they are eager to do that."

On Friday, Russian Ambbadador to Iran Levan Dzhagaryan said that Moscow had no intention of urging Iran to withdraw and deny any tension between them. "We are actively interacting with Iran, both on the ground and on the political track," Dzhagaryan told Interfax, the Russian news agency. "As the military presence of Russia" in Syria, he said, the military presence of Iran "is legal because our military presence and that of Iran take place at the request of the government of the Syrian Arab Republic. "

Trump and Putin said that they were working to address Israel's concerns about Iranian forces near its border, where Assad is fighting to recover a remaining pocket of the territory controlled by the US government. opposition in southwestern Syria.

The Kremlin Press Service announced on Friday that Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had spoken by telephone, as had their defense ministers. The Russian ambbadador to Israel said he "understood" the withdrawal of "some well-known armed units". . . Interfax reported that Netanyahu's office only said that both spoke of developments in the region and that he had "noted that Israel would continue to act against the Iranian army". retrenchment in Syria. "

Coats was among several senior national security officials who said that they have not yet been briefed on the Helsinki summit while Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has met Trump on Thursday, other senior military officials are still waiting for a reading of the president or his national security advisor, John Bolton, next week.P Pompeo, who attended an extended meeting with badistants after the face- to face Trump and Putin, must testify before the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Senate on Wednesday.

US Ambbadador to Russia, Jon Huntsman, briefed diplomats in Moscow after the summit Thursday, representatives "Five Eyes" countries – Canada, Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand – which are part of a multilateral intelligence agreement with the United States, have been informed by a responsible NSC is doing "in Helsinki and no" bargaining "has taken place, according to one participant.

Ukraine was also discussed at the meeting. The crisis in Ukraine has been a particularly sensitive issue for US allies, given that Trump had suggested that the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Russia in 2014, belong to Moscow

Pompeo told Sergei Lavrov, his Russian counterpart At a meeting in Helsinki, Vladislav Surkov, Russia 's henchman for Ukraine, was to engage constructively with US envoy Kurt Volker. The two men fought to agree on the introduction of United Nations peacekeepers in eastern Ukraine, where government forces continue to fight the separatists backed by Russia. his suggestion to Trump that a referendum be held in the separatist regions of Ukraine. On Friday, state department spokesman Heather Nauert said the Trump administration "is not considering supporting a referendum."

Antonov, the Russian ambbadador who was this week the spokesman of the Russian claims. The summit, said that "the Ukrainian issue was not in the center" of the Trump-Putin talks, reported Interfax.

John Hudson contributed to this report.

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