Trump and Putin speak by telephone

US President-Elect Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a phone call on Monday night with both men agreeing to "normalize relations" between the two countries.

    Both men, agreed "on the absolutely unsatisfactory state of bilateral relations," said they would make efforts "to normalize relations and pursue constructive cooperation on the broadest possible range of issues".

    Putin and Trump discussed Syria, agreeing on "the need to work together in the struggle against the No. 1 common enemy international terrorism and extremism Daesh.

    Russia became a major issue in the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign on a number of fronts. Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration accused Russia of hacking into Democratic Party and her campaign chairman's computers, taking emails to transfer to Wikileaks. Russia denied the charge and the US never made any evidence public.

    Wikileak's publication of thousands of emails unearthed unethical and potentially corrupt practices by the party as well as the Clinton Foundation, which hurt Clinton in the final weeks of the campaign. She lost to Trump on November 8.

    Trump also came under attack because he called for good relations with Russia and a turn away from what has become a new Cold War over Syria, Ukraine and Eastern Europe.

    Putin and Trump had warm words for each other during the campaign, which was also attacked by Clinton and the U.S. media.

    During the campaign Trump said that destroying ISIS in Syria was the priority and called for an alliance with Russia to achieve that. He said he didn't like Syrian President Bashar al-Assad but that his fate should be decided after destroying terrorism in the country.

    Putin and Trump discussed such a military alliance during their phone call. President Barack Obama came to the same conclusion and had his secretary of state, John Kerry, conclude an alliance in September with Moscow, but the deal fell apart.

    U.S. allies are concerned that Trump will not keep pressure on Russia. NATO officials have expressed this worry and the U.S. press has gone on the attack too, with the New York Times warning Trump not "to go soft" on Russia.

    But Trump does not see Russia as a threat and apparently intends to pursue better relations with Moscow.

Source: QNA