Syrian leader, Putin meet at Kremlin
MOSCOW — Syrian President Bashar Assad ventured outside his beleaguered nation for the first time in more than four years Wednesday to meet Russia’s Vladimir Putin in a surprise visit to Kremlin patrons now backing Syria’s government with military might.
The landmark trip is a powerful signal of Russia’s growing support for the embattled Syrian government as it fights an armed rebellion that includes factions backed by the West and many Middle East partners.
Russian warplanes have struck Syrian rebel targets across the country in recent weeks, allowing Assad’s forces to go on the offensive and give the Damascus government a critical lifeline after near-constant battles since 2011.
Russia insists it is battling the Islamic State, which controls parts of Syria, but antigovernment rebels and activists say few of the Russian strikes have hit the jihadists. Assad has painted his government’s military crackdown as a fight against terrorism.
But the Russian intervention has sharply deepened tensions with Washington, which is leading separate airstrikes against the Islamic State and rejects a long-term role for Assad in Syria’s future.
The Pentagon and NATO allies have expressed worry over possible inadvertent encounters between Russian and U.S.-led coalition aircraft in the skies over Syria. Neighbouring Turkey has accused Russia of twice violating its airspace and shot down a Russianmade drone last week.
“Naturally, (they discussed) issues of the fight against terrorist and extremist groups, issues of the continuation of the Russian operation supporting the offensive of the Syrian Armed Forces,” Dmitri Peskov, Putin’s personal spokesman, said of the meeting between the two leaders.
Putin said that at least 4,000 Islamist militants from the former Soviet Union are now fighting in Syria, and warned that they could not be allowed to foment instability in Russia, the transcript said.
He also reiterated the eventual need for a political settlement to end the conflict. The West has demanded that Assad step down as part of any political transition, a condition Putin did not address.
In response, Assad thanked the Russian leader for his support, and affirmed his support for a political settlement.
“The whole people want to take part in deciding the fate of the state, not just the ruling group,” Assad said.
The Kremlin meetings unfolded a day after the Pentagon’s new army chief held talks in Iraq, seeking to bolster U.S. support for Iraqi forces battling the Islamic State. Gen. Joseph Dunford said Iraqi leaders gave assurances that Baghdad has not reached out to Russia to possibly expand its airstrikes.
But a group of Iraqi political leaders and influential Shiite militias have urged Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to request Russian airstrikes on Islamic State militants, Reuters reported. Photographs released by the Kremlin also showed Assad dining with Putin and other top Russian officials, including Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu.