HANGZHOU, China -- President Barack Obama's latest effort to broker a cease-fire in Syria fell short Monday after a 90-minute meeting between Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit failed to resolve snags between the countries.
"Given the gaps of trust that exist, that's a tough negotiation, and we haven't yet closed the gaps in a way where we think it would actually work," Obama said at a news conference.
Obama said he had instructed Secretary of State John Kerry to continue negotiating with the Russians over the coming days to see whether a deal was possible. The goal, he said, is to forge a durable cease-fire that would end the rain of bombs on Aleppo and other Syrian cities.
"The faster we can offer some relief to folks on ground," he said, "the better off we're going to be."
At his own news conference at the end of the summit, Putin declined to discuss the details of a Syria deal, but he said the talks were on the "right track" and expressed hope that an agreement could be reached shortly despite earlier disagreements.
"I have grounds to believe that it can happen in the next few days," Putin told reporters in remarks broadcast live on state-run television. "Then we can say that our joint work with the United States in the fight against terrorist organizations, including along the Syrian track, will be significantly improved and intensified."
Underlining the Kremlin's close links to the parties involved, however, Putin said Russia would have to consult with Syria and Iran on any attempts to improve the situation in Syria.
On Syria, Obama left the diplomatic heavy-lifting to Kerry, who met twice with the Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov.
Kerry and Lavrov have for weeks been trying to broker a deal that would curb the violence between Russian-allied Syrian government forces and moderate rebels backed by the U.S. Talks are expected to resume quickly, probably later this week.
The deal depends on the two sides agreeing to closer military coordination against extremist groups operating in Syria, something the Russians have long sought and the U.S. has resisted.
The State Department has said it wants a nationwide cease-fire between Syrian President Bashar Assad's military and the rebels, rather than another time-limited agreement like ones that failed before.
Obama didn't detail the trouble spots although he suggested the U.S. has concerns about Russia holding up its end of the bargain and enforcing the terms. Any deal would depend on Moscow using its influence with Assad to persuade him to ground planes and stop the assault on opposition forces.
After the meeting with Putin, Obama recalled the failure of a previous cessation of hostilities that the United States had brokered with Russia.
"Slowly, it unwound, and we're back to a situation in which Assad's regime is bombing with impunity," he said. "That is a very dangerous dynamic."
Obama and Putin also discussed the conflict in Ukraine, where Russia-backed separatists have been fighting the government, and the implementation of an agreement to stop the violence. Obama met earlier with French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the same issue.
Hollande said he told Putin "that nothing would be worse than the partition of Syria" and urged him to move toward negotiations to end the country's civil war.
Hollande posted a statement on his Facebook page, saying he had met Putin on Sunday night and "alerted" him to the humanitarian crisis in the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo.
Hollande said he also urged Putin to work toward a settlement in Ukraine, and that the two men will meet with Merkel and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko "in the coming weeks" to discuss how to implement the Minsk accords to end the standoff in eastern Ukraine.
ISIS claims bombings
In Syria, near-simultaneous bombings claimed by the Islamic State group struck in and around strongholds of the Syrian government and Kurdish troops Monday, killing at least 48 people.
The wave of attacks came a day after the militants lost a vital link to the outside world along the Syrian-Turkish border.
The Islamic State-run Aamaq news agency said the attacks included six suicide bombings and one remotely detonated blast. Most targeted security forces.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which maintains a network of contacts in Syria, put the overall death toll at 53, although Syrian state TV said 48 were killed. Conflicting casualty figures are common in the 5-year-old Syria civil war.
Jennifer Cafarella, a Syria expert with the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War, said it was too soon to say whether the attacks by the Islamic State were a reaction to its recent defeats along the border.
But she cautioned that setbacks for the Islamic State can lead to "a dangerous new phase" by the group, which sometimes resorts to "infiltration and spectacular attacks that exploit and widen rifts" between populations, groups and security forces in both western and northern Syria.
Turkey's recent intervention in the north has exposed major rifts and encouraged anti-Kurdish activity, Cafarella said via email. She said it was likely that as Islamic State militants are pushed out of territory, they will increasingly target government and Kurdish areas.
"So it's a dangerous possibility that we're witnessing ISIS gear up for a campaign to expand westward into either or both regime and opposition territory as it loses to the anti-ISIS coalition," she said.
The territorial losses at the border were a big blow to the militant group, which has suffered a series of recent battlefield setbacks in Syria and Iraq. Syrian rebels, backed by Turkish warplanes and tanks, continued to push Islamic State fighters out of the border strip Monday, securing their hold on an area seized a day earlier.
Monday's bombings came in rapid succession during the morning rush hour, targeting the central city of Homs; a highly guarded Damascus suburb; the government stronghold of Tartus, where Russia has a naval base; and Kurdish areas in northeastern Syria.
State TV showed damage at the Arzoneh bridge just outside Tartus along the international coastal highway. The report said the Tartus-Homs highway was closed briefly.
Dozens of burned and mangled cars sat in pools of water mixed with blood after the blaze was extinguished.
The Islamic State and the Observatory said the target was a checkpoint at Tartus' southern entrance. The militant group said it sent three suicide bombers to the area, the first of them in a car. Two followed after security forces and rescuers responded.
State TV said at least 35 people were killed. The Observatory put the figure at 38, including an army colonel. Dozens were wounded.
Another of Monday's bombings occurred in the Damascus suburb of Sabbourah, a major security breach in the heavily guarded area. The state-run Syrian Arab News Agency said the attack killed one person, while the opposition-run Observatory said three were killed.
The Islamic State said a suicide car bomb targeted a military checkpoint west of Damascus.
"It's an area that houses officers and their families. Even before the revolution, it was carefully guarded," said opposition media activist Yousef al-Boustani, referring to the 2011 uprising against Assad that began with peaceful protests demanding changes.
Police chief Maj. Gen. Jamal Bittar told state TV that three attackers were in the car that was seen by security forces. They fired at the car, forcing two passengers to get out and the driver to blow up the car, Bittar said. Another bomber blew himself up as he was arrested, killing the security officer and wounding three civilians, Bittar added.
Elsewhere, a car bomb struck a military checkpoint in the central provincial capital of Homs, killing three soldiers and a civilian and wounding 10 others.
The city, which is Syria's third-largest, is largely under government control, with only one neighborhood still held by rebels. The bomb exploded in the government-held Bab Tadmor district. The Observatory said four soldiers were killed.
A suicide bomber on a motorcycle in the city of Hasakeh killed eight people, the state news agency said. The Islamic State news agency said the attack targeted a checkpoint manned by Kurdish forces.
Information for this article was contributed by Mark Landler and Neil MacFarquhar of The New York Times; by Josh Lederman, Kathleen Hennessey, Teresa Cerojano, Sarah El Deeb, Philip Issa, Albert Aji and Maamoun Youssef of The Associated Press; and by Gregory Viscusi of Bloomberg News.
A Section on 09/06/2016