Putin meets Assad ahead of Syria talks with Iran, Turkey
President Vladimir Putin said the Russian Army had “saved Syria as a state” after meeting with his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-assad, as Syrian forces took an upper hand terrorist groups.
Monday’s talks came during an announced “working visit” by Assad to the Black Sea resort of Sochi, ahead of a summit between Putin and the presidents of Turkey and Iran on Wednesday aimed at rebooting the Syrian peace process, AFP wrote.
“As for our joint work in the fight against terrorism in Syria, this military operation is coming to an end,” Putin said, according to a transcript published on the Kremlin’s website.
The Russian president praised Assad and predicted terrorism would suffer an “inevitable” defeat in the country.
“Thanks to the Russian army, Syria has been saved as a state. Much has been done to stabilize the situation in Syria,” the transcript said.
“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,” Assad said in translated comments.
Putin said he would consult world leaders on his talks with Assad, including with US president Donald Trump in a telephone call.
The Russian army’s Chief of General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, told Russian news agencies that “despite the fact that there remains a raft of unresolved problems” the military stage “is coming to its logical conclusion”.
Putin will Wednesday host Iran’s Hassan Rouhani and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan for the first in a series of summits on the peace process, ahead of parallel Un-led talks in Geneva set for November 28.
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 war in Syria that has left 330,000 dead and millions homeless.
Russia, Iran and Turkey have backed negotiations in the Kazakh capital Astana that have brought together the representatives of the opposition and the Syrian government seven times this year.
The talks led to the creation of four so-called “de-escalation zones” that produced a drop in violence, but sporadic fighting and bombardment has continued.
Moscow is now seeking to steer the process in a political direction.
The Sochi summit will help to “relaunch direct negotiations between the Syrian government and the range of the opposition”, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.