WASHINGTON (Sputnik), Leandra Bernstein — On Wednesday, US President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke over the phone to discuss the Iranian nuclear agreement and reducing regional tensions, particularly in Syria.
According to a White House press release, both leaders expressed a desire to work together Syria conflict, which has been ongoing since 2011.
“There is still a lot of work to do to prevent the continued use by the Syrian regime of chlorine as a weapon, and we hope we can cooperate with the Russian Federation on that one,” Countryman said.
Russia and the United States reached an agreement in 2013 to work together to secure and destroy the vast majority of Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile. The deal was struck as the United States was threatening military action against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
In March 2015, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution condemning the use of chlorine gas as a weapon in Syria.
Syria joined the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and agreed to destroy its chemical arms stockpile after a 2013 sarin gas attack near Damascus killed more than 1,000 people.
At the end of October 2014, the OPCW reported that nearly 98 percent of chemical weapons removed from Syria had been destroyed.
