 Welcome to NewsClick. On the sidelines of G20, Putin and Trump had a meeting and they spent about two hours with each other discussing at the pier, primarily the Syrian issue. Now, there are two reasons why this is significant. One is that Russia and the United States have gone head-to-head, particularly in Syria for quite some time. And there has been a feeling that things were spiraling out of control, the chance of war, Ukraine was on the boil. So Russia and the United States going head-to-head is not exactly good news for the world. So if they did beat and they could work out certain things among themselves, this is really good and welcome news for the rest of the world, probably even for Russia and the United States. Trump has been hamstrung by the fact that it has been accused of collaborating with Russia for his elections. This does not seem to have affected the discussions he has had. One of the significant outcomes of this meeting seems to have been that they have struck a deal on southwest Syria and declared that they will both support a ceasefire over there. That ceasefire, which involves also support from Jordan, who is a neighboring state over there, it seems has brought the fighting in southwest Syria to a certain standstill. Yes, this does not extend to Al Qaeda groups, nor does it extend to the ISIS. So these are two groups which are outside the ceasefire, but the bulk of the groups in southwest Syria who have been fighting Damascus, Bashar al-Assad's governments have been with probably more closely aligned to the Americas, the Free Syrian Army and others. And they seem to be willing to stand by the ceasefire which has been worked out between Putin and Trump. So in that sense, if this really holds good, if the ceasefire holds good, it could set a different interaction between Russia and the United States on Syria. And it is possible that both would try to work together to defeat the ISIS, work together on the issues of Al Qaeda and try and stabilize the Syrian situation. Does it mean that the United States accepts Bashar al-Assad's government? Probably not. Does it mean they are willing to work with it? Probably yes. One country which is going to be unhappy about southwest Syria's ceasefire is Israel because it is located in Jolan Heights. As people know, Jolan Heights is occupied by Israel for after 1967 war and that is something which they feel that if the ceasefire takes place, then Syrian government would be strengthened and its allies like Hezbollah would be strengthened in that region. They have been supporting. In fact, people have claimed they have been acting as the air arm of Al Qaeda in that region. So whenever Al Qaeda wanted Israeli intervention, all they had to fire was a couple of rounds of cannon fire or something else across the border and Israel would come and bomb the Syrian Arab army, which had nothing to do with this attacks. So in Jolan, they have been cooperating very closely with the Al Qaeda forces. This is now public, has been public for some time, but even Wall Street Journal and other mainstream papers are now printed. The close relation Israel has had with the rebels in this area. So I think Israel would not be happy with the ceasefire but I think the rest of Syria and probably the region would be rather happy that Trump and Putin are willing to work together on the Syrian war.