Trump, Putin agree to cooperate in fight against ISIS

Trump and Putin agreed to cooperate in fighting ISIS as well as on other regional issues in their first phone conversation.

US President Donald Trump and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin both committed on Saturday to engage in bilateral cooperation on a range of issues, in their first telephone discussion.

“Both sides expressed their readiness to make active joint efforts to stabilize and develop Russia-US cooperation on a constructive, equitable and mutually beneficial basis,” the Kremlin said in a statement.

The White House added that both leaders stressed a desire to work together in fighting common threats.

“Both President Trump and President Putin are hopeful that after today’s call the two sides can move quickly to tackle terrorism and other important issues of mutual concern,” read a White House statement.

Specifically, Trump and Putin spoke of engaging in joint efforts to fight against Islamic terror groups in Syria.

“The presidents have spoken in favor of establishing a real coordination between the US and Russian actions in order to defeat ISIS and other terrorist organizations in Syria,” the Kremlin stated.

Any joint action between Russia and the US in this regard would be a significant departure from Obama administration policy, when there was no cooperation between the US and Russia in fighting the Islamic State (ISIS) and other terror groups in Syria.

In an interview with Fox News commentator Sean Hannity that aired on Thursday, Trump expressed a desire for bilateral cooperation with Russia in fighting ISIS.

“It’s good for Russia, it’s good for us,” Trump said. “We go out together and knock the hell out of ISIS, because that’s a real sickness.”

Trump and Putin also reportedly discussed establishing cooperation on other regional issues, including the Arab-Israeli conflict and the Iran nuclear program.

By: Jonathan Benedek, World Israel News

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