WASHINGTON/MOSCOW—President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday moved to ease the tension from U.S. air strikes in April against Russian ally Syria, expressing a desire for a Syrian ceasefire and safe zones for the civil war’s refugees.
The two leaders spoke by phone for the first time since U.S. relations with Russian were strained by the U.S. attack on a Syrian airfield. The two leaders set the foundation for what could be their first face-to-face meeting in July.
Statements from both the White House and the Kremlin suggested the two leaders had a productive conversation that included North Korea and fighting radical Islamic terrorists throughout the Middle East.
A senior Trump administration official said Putin had requested the call and described it as an effort to present his ideas for Syria.
Trump ordered 59 cruise missiles launched in retaliation for a chemical weapons attack that the United States blamed on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The attacked prompted protests from Assad ally Russia, which blamed Syrian rebels for the use of outlawed nerve gas and said Assad was not at fault.
The White House said the two leaders agreed that “all parties must do all they can to end the violence” in Syria.
“The conversation was a very good one, and included the discussion of safe, or de-escalation, zones to achieve lasting peace for humanitarian and many other reasons,” a White House statement said.
