US, Russia Agree to Find Political Solution to Violence in Syria

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Tuesday after talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin that the two countries “have a shared set of interests on how to move the political process forward” in finding a solution to the violence in Syria. “There is the political process associated with UN Security Council Resolution 2254 that has been hung up, and I think we mutually now can begin to work together in a way to unlock that,” Pompeo told reporters. UNSC Resolution 2254, which was passed unanimously in 2015, called for a ceasefire and a UN-backed political settlement in Syria. Pompeo elaborated that both the US and Russia back the establishment of a committee tasked with drafting a post-war Syrian constitution. To date, there has been next to no headway made in forming that committee. Northwestern provinces in Syria have recently been hit with the worst violence in the region since September, when Moscow and Ankara reached a ceasefire agreement that prevented a large-scale government offensive. The eight-year Syrian Civil War has killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced millions.