President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to seek out a political resolution in Syria and strike up a dialogue between U.S. and Russian military officials to de-escalate the conflict, but the role of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad remained a point of contention, officials said Monday. During their 90-minute meeting after both leaders traded barbs in their addresses to the United Nations General Assembly, Obama and Putin sat down for their first formal meeting in more than two years. Earlier in the day, Putin had said there was no alternative to working with Assad’s military in the battle against ISIS, while Obama pointed to the Syrian leader as a part of the problem in the four-year civil war. Putin told reporters after the meeting that the discussion was “very constructive and surprisingly open,” but “disputes remain.”
