Tuesday, the city of Sochi on the Black Sea.

The presidents of Russia and Turkey, they walk into a room and pose for the camera.

Did you get a chance to look at the pictures out of Sochi of Vladimir Putin negotiating this peace deal between Turkey and Syria?

Yes. The two men looked pretty happy, but it was six hours of negotiations to hammer out what was going to happen in northeast Syria.

Deb Amos is an international correspondent for NPR.

She's reported on the Middle East for years. You know, they came up with this 10-point plan that

was pretty extraordinary. But I think the message of the pictures is that Putin is the kingmaker

in the region.

Vladimir Putin looked really relaxed.

He did.

He was, like, leaning on his chair in a certain way, and Erdogan looked a little stiff.

Well, he had some tough negotiations to carry out there.

I think he got what he wanted, but Putin was completely in control of that meeting.

This meeting felt like watching a global power shift in real time.

Weeks earlier, it had been one world leader, Donald Trump, who kicked off the Middle Eastern conflict, authorizing a hasty U.S. withdrawal from northeastern Syria.

Stunning video this morning showing Kurdish civilians in northern Syria pelting a U.S.

convoy with rotten vegetables as they accuse U.S. troops of abandoning them.

But protesters with signs blocked the convoys. One read, thanks for U.S. people, but Trump betrayed us.

Now it's taken a meeting with another world leader, Vladimir Putin, to figure out what happens next,

who patrols which towns, what refugees go where. Make no mistake about it in the Middle East.

This is seen as a strategic defeat for the United States and one self-inflicted.

I mean, you've covered the Middle East for how long now?

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