Trump to speak with Putin on Tuesday

Washington May 2 (IANS) US President Donald Trump will on Tuesday speak over phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin a White House official said.

It will be the first call between the two leaders since Russia denounced a US military strike against a Syrian airbase in April and their third phone conversation since Trump took office on January 20 CNN quoted the official as saying.

They last spoke following a terror attack in St. Petersburg in Russia and also chatted a week after the US President s inauguration.

The call comes after Putin characterised the Syria strike an act of aggression against a sovereign state in violation of the norms of international law.

According to the US the strike was in response to an alleged chemical attack by Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad a Putin ally on his own people that left more than 80 civilians dead.

--IANS
py/