British Prime Minister David Cameron is to suggest to President Vladimir Putin, to halt Russian air strikes in Syria as a step towards a quicker conflict resolution.
The two leaders will meet in Turkey at the world leaders’ G20 summit.
The Mirror reports:
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It will be the two leaders’ first face-to-face meeting since Russia’s bombing campaign commenced last month.
It’s understood the Prime Minister will try to convince Mr Putin that the strikes will only prolong the conflict.
The murder of at least 129 in multiple attacks in the French capital has ensured the terrorist threat will dominate the annual gathering.
French president Francois Hollande himself has pulled out of the two-day summit as he prepares to address both houses of the French parliament in Versailles on Monday.
But Mr Cameron will be joined by other leaders already engaged in the struggle against ISIS, including US president Barack Obama, whose air force has been conducting strikes against the group in Syria and Iraq, and on Saturday targeted an Islamic State leader in Libya.
The summit’s host, Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, urged fellow leaders to prioritise the issue, telling reporters: “We are now at a point where words end in the fight against terrorism. We are now at a stage where this should be put at the forefront.”
Turkish media reported four IS militants were killed after opening fire on soldiers in the east of the country on Saturday.
Also present will be Russian president Vladimir Putin, whose strikes against those he regards as terrorists in Syria are suspected by the West to be designed to shore up the rule of Bashar Assad rather than to defeat Islamic State.
ISIS has claimed responsibility for downing a Russian airliner in Egypt’s Sinai peninsula last month, killing 224.
Even before Friday’s attacks, the G20 agenda was expected to be topped by the search for a solution to the four-year civil war in Syria and to the waves of migration the conflict has unleashed across the Middle East and Mediterranean.
Turkey, which has a 500-mile border with Syria, has granted the US-led coalition access to its air bases to launch strikes against IS.
