VOA常速英语:Trump, Russian FM Hold Talks on Syria, Other Flashpoints

During a photo opportunity with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger,President Donald Trump spoke warmly of his meeting with the Kremlin’s top diplomat.

“We had a very, very good meeting with Mr. Lavrov, and it was, I thought it was very, very good.”

One day after firing the Head of the Agency investigating his 2016 presidential campaign’s ties with Moscow,Trump said the US-Russia dialogue produce hope for progress on the conflict in Syria.

And I think that we’re going to do very well with respect to Syria.I think things are happening that are really, really, really positive.We’re going to stop the killing and the death."

Trump gave no details, but later Lavrov offered a hopeful assessment of the talks.

We discussed Syria in great detail in the context of the ideas that have been put forth regarding the setting up of de-escalation areas.It will be a step to contribute to the settlement of humanitarian problems."

Assured White House statement said the President underscored the need for Russia to do more to resolve the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine.A positive tone cannot hide the difficult overall state of Moscow-Washington ties.

According to Russia expert Steven Pifer,

“On Syria, it appears that there’s still some fairly major differences with the White House,seeing that the President asked Mr. Lavrov to rein in the Assad, the head of Syria, and also to rein in Iran, in Iranian proxies.And my guess is that’s not going to be something that the Russians are going to be inclined to deliver on.So there seems to be desired to find a way to improve relations, but there are still seems to be some very big obstacles to that,including the situation in Ukraine.”

In his news conference, Lavrov ridiculed the idea that Russia had meddled in last year’s US presidential election,calling such reports fake information that is humiliating for the American people.

“I believe that politicians are damaging the political system of the US,trying to pretend that someone is controlling America from the outside.”

Earlier Wednesday, as he met with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson,Lavrov pretended not to have heard about the firing of FBI Director James Comey.Was he fired? You’re kidding. You’re kidding.

Peter Heinlein, VOA news, the White House.