WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama rejected Russian President Vladimir Putin's claim that Syrian rebels were responsible for an Aug. 21 chemical gas attack but, in an interview broadcast on Sunday, he welcomed Putin's diplomatic role in the crisis.
Obama, in an interview on ABC's "This Week With George Stephanopolous," defended his handling of the Syria crisis and dismissed criticism of his zig-zag approach to the issue as an argument about style.
Obama also said he and new Iranian President Hassan Rouhani had exchanged letters about the situation in Syria and that the Iranians understand the US concern about a potential nuclear-armed Iran "is a far larger issue" for the United States.
Obama and Putin have become unlikely allies on Syria after US threats to launch a military strike against Syria over the chemical weapons attack prompted a diplomatic initiative that has led to a framework deal on Saturday aimed at gaining control of Syria's poison gas stockpiles.
Obama said he welcomed Putin's involvement as helpful and said any deal on Syria must include a verifiable way to ensure that it gives up all its chemical weapons capacity.
"I think there's a way for Mr. Putin, despite me and him having a whole lot of differences, to play an important role in that," Obama said. "And so I welcome him being involved. I welcome him saying, 'I will take responsibility for pushing my client, the Assad regime, to deal with these chemical weapons.'"
But Obama dismissed Putin's charge that it was the Syrian rebels who launched the chemical weapons attack, instead of forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, as Washington believes.
"Well, nobody around the world takes seriously the idea that the rebels were the perpetrators of this," Obama said.
Washington says the attacked killed more than 1,400 civilians.
Obama's response to the crisis in Syria has received mixed reviews from the American people. A Reuters-Ipsos poll last week found only 35 per cent of Americans were satisfied with how he was handling the situation.
Syria unrest
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A stock trader makes last minute transactions ahead of the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange on August 27, 2013.
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Stock traders make final transactions ahead of the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 170 points on fears of a possible US attack on Syria.
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Stock traders make last minute transactions ahead of the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange.
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A Free Syrian Army fighter drinks water as he sits on a sofa in the old city of Aleppo.
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Mourners carry the coffin of a Shi'ite fighter from the pro-Assad Sayyid al-Shuhada Brigades during a funeral. The text on the flag reads, "Islamic Resistance in Iraq, Sayyid al-Shuhada Brigades".
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White House Press Secretary Jay Carney speaks about Syria during a press briefing at the White House in Washington August 27, 2013.
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Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said on August 27 the UN mission investigating alleged chemical weapons attacks in Damascus has been delayed until the following after rebels failed to guarantee the experts' safety.
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An image grab taken from a video uploaded on YouTube allegedly shows United Nations (UN) arms experts in Damascus' Moadamiyet al-Sham suburb as they investigate an alleged chemical weapons strike in the capital.
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A Free Syrian Army fighter holds his weapons as he peeks at an alleyway.
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Free Syrian Army fighters hold up their weapons as they cheer after seizing Aleppo's town of Khanasir.
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Free Syrian Army fighters carry weapons as they take up positions during an offensive against forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad.
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A member of the Islamist Syrian opposition group Ahrar al-Sham fires against a position of the Committees for the Protection of the Kurdish People (YPG), a militia set up to protect Kurdish areas in Syria from opposing forces.
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Free Syrian Army (FSA) fighters drag a body, which according to the FSA, is one of forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, during an offensive to seize Aleppo's town of Khanasi.
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An opposition fighter holding a rocket propelled grenade (RPG) as his fellow comrades take cover from an attack by regime forces.
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Syrian refugees, who fled the violence in Syria, are seen at a new refugee camp in the outskirts of the city of Arbil in Iraq's Kurdistan region.
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A civilian is comforted at a site hit by what activists said was shelling by forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad.
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Syrians men evacuate a victim following an air strike by regime forces in the northern city of Aleppo.
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An Israeli man shows his children how to adjust a gas mask at a distribution point at a shopping mall.
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Men search for survivors amid rubbles of collapsed building after what activists said was shelling by forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad.
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Israelis receive gas masks at a distribution centre in Jerusalem. As talks of an international attack on Syria heighten, the demand for gas masks in Israel rose.
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A Free Syrian Army fighter places a locally made bomb in a wall to make a hole for snipers.
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Free Syrian Army fighters handle a locally made rocket in old Aleppo, August 25, 2013.
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An injured member of the Free Syrian Army rests next to his weapon in a safe house.
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Chemical materials and gas masks in a warehouse at the front line of clashes between opposition fighters and government forces.
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Ammunition is seen at an area controlled by forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad at the front line during clashes with opposition fighters during a guided tour by the Syrian Army.
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Soldiers loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad carry a wounded soldier at the front line during clashes with opposition fighters in the Damascus suburb of Jobar, August 24, 2013.
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Free Syrian Army fighters run for cover from snipers loyal to Syria's President Bashar Al-Assad in Deir al-Zor.
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A Lebanese woman who was injured by a blast lays in a hospital bed.
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Lebanese civilians gather next to the site of a blast outside the Al-Taqwamosque in the northern city of Tripoli on August 23, 2013. Car bombs exploded outside two Sunni mosques in a Lebanese city riven by strife over the war in neighbouring Syria, killing 29 people and wounding 352, the health minister said.
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A man reacts outside one of two mosques hit by explosions in Lebanon's northern city of Tripoli.