Russian President Vladimir Putin continued his diplomatic push for a plan to establish safe zones in Syria backed by peacekeepers as he began talks with Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the Black Sea resort of Sochi on Wednesday. Russia and Turkey can "change the destiny of the whole region" together, Erdogan told Putin, who said relations between the two countries are acquiring a special status. The meeting took place a day after Putin discussed the plan for safe zones with US President Donald Trump in what the White House described as a "very good" phone call. Putin and Trump agreed to step up efforts to co-operate on resolving the Syria conflict and the fight against terrorism, according to US and Russian statements. A senior US diplomat is attending two days of Russian-led talks on Syria that started on Tuesday in Kazakhstan. Syria’s opposition is sceptical about the Russian initiative, which calls for the creation of four buffer zones patrolled by forces that could includ...
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