Putin hosts Assad ahead of Syria talks Russia denies N- accident in units
Russia, Turkey, Iran to discuss Syria war strategy
Sochi, Nov. 21: President Vladimir Putin said the Russian Army had “saved Syria as a state” after meeting with leader Bashar al- Assad, as Syrian regime forces take an upper hand over rebels and the Islamic State group.
Monday’s talks came during an announced “working visit” by Assad to the Black Sea resort of Sochi, ahead of a summit between Mr Putin and the leaders of Turkey and Iran on Wednesday aimed at rebooting the Syrian peace process.
“As for our joint work in the fight against terrorism in Syria, this military operation is coming to an end,” Mr Putin said, according to a transcript published on the Kremlin’s website.
The Russian leader praised Assad and predicted terrorism would suffer an “inevitable” defeat in the country.
“It is in our interest to advance the political process... We don’t want to look back and we are ready for dialogue with all those who want to come up with a political settlement,” Mr Assad said in translated comments.
Mr Putin said he would consult world leaders on his talks with Mr Assad, including with US president Donald Trump in a telephone call expected on Tuesday.
Mr Putin will Wednesday host Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iran’s Hassan Rouhani for the first in a series of summits on the peace process.
The meeting — the first such three- way summit between the trio, comes as Ankara, Moscow and Tehran cooperate with increasing intensity on ending the over six- year civil war in Syria that has left 330,000 dead. — AFP Moscow, Nov. 21: Russia on Tuesday denied its nuclear facilities experienced any incidents after reports of contamination by the ruthenium 106 radioactive isotope in parts of the country, and said the concentration detected posed little threat.
Russia’s meteorological service said a station close to the Mayak nuclear facility in Chelyabinsk region in south Urals detected “extremely high pollution” of Ru- 106 which exceeded the usual background pollution by 986 times.
But a representative of Rosatom nuclear corporation said “there have been no incidents at nuclear infrastructure facilities in Russia.” Rosatom said the dose “poses no danger to human health and lives.”
— AFP