As the crisis continues in Syria, President Obama met with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 summit in Mexico on Monday. It was their first meeting since Putin returned to the Russian presidency last month. The two have remained at odds over Syria, with the United States criticizing Russian support for Bashar al-Assad and Russia calling on the United States to include Iran in regional talks for an end to the violence. In his comments to reporters, Obama acknowledged he and Putin had broken no new ground.

President Obama: “We discussed Syria, where we agreed that we need to see a cessation of the violence, that a political process has to be created to prevent civil war and the kind of horrific deaths that we’ve seen over the last several weeks. And we pledged to work with other international actors, including the United Nations, Kofi Annan, and all interested parties, in trying to find a resolution to this problem.”