Putin meets with Assad, throws against Turkish and American forces in Syria

MOSCOW, Sept. 14 (Reuters) – President Vladimir Putin received Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad in Moscow on Monday for the first time since 2015 and criticized foreign forces in Syria without a UN mandate, he said the Kremlin, in a reprimand to the United States and Turkey.

Assad’s most powerful ally in the ten-year Syrian conflict, Putin last received the Syrian leader in Russia in 2018 at his summer residence in the Black Sea town of Sochi.

Russia’s air force played a critical role in reversing the Syrian conflict in favor of Assad after it deployed there in 2015, helping it regain most of the territory lost by the insurgents.

However, significant parts of Syria remain out of state control, with Turkish forces deployed in much of the north and northwest – the last great stronghold of the anti-Assad rebels – and US forces in the north. east and northeast controlled by the Kurds.

Assad, who has also been backed by Iran during the conflict, has made few trips abroad since the war began in 2011.

Putin told Assad that foreign forces in Syria without a UN decision were an obstacle to its consolidation, the Kremlin said. Putin also congratulated him on winning a fourth term in the May presidential election.

“The terrorists suffered very serious damage and the Syrian government, led by you, controls 90% of the territories,” Putin said, according to a Kremlin statement.

The Kremlin said Assad thanked the Russian leader for humanitarian aid to Syria and his efforts to stop the “spread of terrorism.”

He praised what he called the success of the Russian and Syrian armies in “liberating the occupied territories” of Syria.

Assad also called “antihuman” and “illegitimate” sanctions imposed by some nations in Syria.

The United States tightened sanctions on Syria last year, saying it aimed to force Assad to stop the war and agree on a political solution.

Syrian state news agency SANA said the two leaders discussed cooperation between the Syrian and Russian armies to “fight terrorism and complete the liberation of land that is still under the control of terrorist organizations.” “.

Reports by Vladimir Soldatkin; Written by Vladimir Soldatkin and Tom Perry; Edited by Clarence Fernandez, Robert Birsel

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