Russian President Vladimir Putin and his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama have pragmatic phone discussions “about specific areas of cooperation where both countries could benefit,” Lavrov said in a Bloomberg Television interview in Moscow on Tuesday.
Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry “do the same on a much more detailed level,” he said. “I wouldn’t call it a new reset,” he said, referring to Obama’s policy of seeking improved relations with Russia after his election in 2008.
“I would call it the realization of the need for normalcy.” Ties between the nations reached their lowest point in decades after Russia’s backing for the insurgency in Ukraine prompted the U.S. to impose sanctions on Russian companies and individuals.
The two countries also remain at odds over the U.S. policy of seeking to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose regime is supported by Russia and Iran.Lavrov said he was “surprised that people paid so much attention” to a meeting between Putin and Kerry on May 12, their first in two years, in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
Lavrov met with Kerry 17 times in the past year, he said, despite attempts to “derail relations” because Russia refused to accept last year’s “coup” in Ukraine that toppled Moscow-backed President Viktor Yanukovych.
Assad ‘Obsession’
Lavrov said he and Kerry discussed the possibility of the U.S. joining talks to secure a peace agreement in Ukraine that was negotiated in February in Minsk, Belarus, to try to end the more than yearlong conflict that the United Nations estimates has killed almost 6,400 people.
The “Normandy Format” discussions involving France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine are very fragile and the U.S. realizes this, he said.
Russia and the U.S. believe there can only be a political solution to the Syrian civil war, and the U.S. is willing to go along with a UN-led peace process, Lavrov said. The U.S.’s “obsession” with Assad isn’t helping in the common fight against the threat from Islamic State, he said.
“People put the fate of one person whom they hate above the fight against terrorism,” he said. Islamic State can go “very far” unless stopped, and air strikes alone “are not going to do the trick,” he said.
Militant Advances
Islamic State, which has seized control of a large part of Syria and Iraq, continues to make advances.
The Sunni militants last month seized the city of Ramadi, 110 kilometers (68 miles) west of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, and the strategic northern Syrian city of Palmyra.
“If people continue to acquiesce with what is going on and continue to acquiesce with those who categorically refuse to start the political process until Bashar Assad disappears, then I’m not very optimistic for the future of this region,” Lavrov said.
Talks over Iran’s nuclear program have every chance of reaching an agreement by June 30, unless some participants try “at the 11th hour to get a bit more” than a provisional accord reached in April, he said.
Backing Blatter
Negotiations are intensifying between world powers and Iran to conclude an agreement by the self-imposed deadline.
Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif met for almost six hours in Geneva on Saturday, and technical experts will hold talks within a few days in Vienna on the deal to curb the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program in exchange for an easing of economic sanctions.
Amid fresh allegations of corruption at FIFA after Friday’s re-election of Joseph “Sepp” Blatter as president, Lavrov said the scandal enveloping the world soccer authority won’t affect Russia’s hosting of the 2018 World Cup.
“The timing of this show was scheduled to derail the electoral process at FIFA,” he said, referring to the arrest of officials two days before the vote. “We supported Sepp Blatter during this election, we did not hide this fact.”
Putin accused the U.S. last week of using a corruption probe to try to oust Blatter because “we know the pressure that was put on him to prevent the 2018 World Cup from taking place in Russia.”
The country is spending 665 billion rubles ($12.5 billion) to host the tournament for the first time.
bloomberg.com
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