U.S. President Barack Obama has warned Russian leaders that they cannot "bomb their way to a peaceful solution" in Syria.

Obama said on October 16 that there had been "no meeting of the minds in terms of strategy" with Russia, which this week staged major assaults on rebel strongholds in Aleppo and Homs in coordination with the Syrian Army and an estimated 2,000 Iranian troops.

Obama said Iran was "just doing more of what they have been doing for the last five years, as is Russia."

"Their basic theory on how to solve Syria has not worked."

"Their preference originally was...send arms and money to Assad and he will be able to clamp down on dissent. And when that didn't work, they directed Hizballah to come in and prop them up and sent in some of their own military advisers, and that did not work," he said.

"Now the Russians have come in and Iran is going to send more people...but it's also not going to work because they are trying to support a regime that in the eyes of the overwhelming majority of the Syrian people is not legitimate."

Based on reporting by AFP and Reuters