MikeLigalig.com

By William Schomberg and Andrew Osborn | Reuters – 18 mins ago





ENNISKILLEN, Northern Ireland (Reuters) - President Barack Obama faces what could be a frosty G8 meeting with Vladimir Putin on Monday after the Russian leader clashed with the West over plans to arm Syrian rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad.

At their first face-to-face meeting in a year, Obama will try to convince Putin to bring Assad to the negotiating table but the Kremlin chief has warned the West it risks sowing turmoil across the Middle East by stoking the conflict.

British Prime Minister David Cameron, who chairs the G8 summit, acknowledged there was "a big difference" between the positions of Russia and the West on Syria, but stressed there was also common ground between the world's richest powers.

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=73446.0

"We are not, unless there is a big shift in position on his part, going to get a common position with him at the G8."

The United States said last week it would step up military aid to Syrian rebels - a move which officials said would involve supplying the Western-backed Supreme Military Council with automatic weapons, light mortars and rocket-propelled grenades.

The European Union has also dropped its arms embargo on Syria, allowing France and Britain to arm the rebels, though the two countries say they have no immediate plans to do so.

Obama and Putin are due to meet at about 6:30 pm local time at the Lough Erne golf resort about 10 km (7 miles) outside the Northern Irish town of Enniskillen, scene of an IRA bomb attack in 1987 that killed 11 people.

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=73446.0