Russian President Vladimir Putin said he’ll hold phone talks with U. counterpart Donald Trump on Tuesday as the Kremlin mounts a diplomatic push to resolve the war in Syria following a surprise visit by Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.
Putin has taken a dominant role in efforts to end the conflict after a two-year Russian military campaign helped Assad to fight off opponents, including some backed by the U. With Islamic State nearly defeated in Syria, the Kremlin is moving on to bring together regional and global powers to revive long-stalled efforts to reach a settlement expected to cement the Syrian president in power.
Putin will speak to Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz on Tuesday to discuss the nearly three hours of talks the Russian leader held with Assad in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iranian leader Hassan Rouhani will meet Putin in Sochi on Wednesday to discuss a political resolution in Syria.
“The most important question, of course, is what will happen after the defeat of the terrorists in terms of a peaceful political settlement,” Putin told Assad at their meeting in Sochi on Monday, according to a Kremlin transcript. He noted the Syrian leader’s support for a Russia-backed peace plan.
‘Attained Victory’
Expressing thanks for Russia’s role, Assad told Putin the time is right for negotiations, “especially after we attained victory” over the Syrian government’s opponents. He added: “We’re counting on Russia’s support to ensure the non-intervention of outside players in the political process, so that their role is to support the efforts of the Syrians themselves.”
Putin told Erdogan and Rouhani before the meeting with Assad that he’d work to ensure agreements on Syria that may be reached at their three-way summit are “viable,” Peskov said. The Kremlin said Putin also held talks with the Emir of Qatar on Monday.
Assad’s visit, which wasn’t publicly announced until the following day, echoed a similar trip to Russia that he made in 2015 shortly after Putin launched his air and ground campaign in Syria. The campaign turned the tide in the war in favor of the embattled Syrian president, whom western nations have long sought to see removed.
“The active phase of the military operation in Syria is coming to an end,” Chief of the Russian General Staff Valery Gerasimov told his Turkish and Iranian counterparts in Sochi on Tuesday, according to a Defense Ministry statement. Their joint efforts “preserved the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country, stopped the civil war, and created the conditions for the restoration of peace and the return of refugees,” he said.
‘Decisive Role’
Russia plans to conclude its military intervention by the end of the year, leaving behind only enough forces to maintain an airfield and naval base in Syria, RBC newspaper reported, citing three unnamed officials in the Foreign and Defense Ministries and close to the Kremlin.
Putin, who’s likely to seek a record fourth term in presidential elections in March, presented Assad to the military commanders who led Russia’s effort. “I want to introduce to you the people who played a decisive role in saving Syria,” he said.
“Today, on behalf of the Syrian people, I extend my gratitude to you for what you did,” Assad said. “We will never forget it.”
The Russian leader’s triumphant tone underscores his success in turning the tables on the U., which under Trump’s Democratic predecessor Barack Obama pressed for Assad’s removal and came close in 2013 to ordering strikes on Syria in retaliation for a chemical attack blamed on the regime. Six and a half years after an uprising in Syria morphed into a regional proxy war and terrorist conflict that killed 400,000 and displaced millions, Russia’s Syrian ally is now looking for a stamp of international legitimacy.
Riyadh Meeting
Russia is working actively with Saudi Arabia and other backers of Assad’s opponents such as Turkey to invigorate the peace process. On Wednesday, the Saudi government hosts a meeting in Riyadh of opposition groups that aims to combine them into a single delegation for peace talks in Geneva.
The unified bloc, including factions less hostile to Assad, would be a “tame” counterparty for the Syrian regime at the negotiating table, said Robert Ford, a former U. ambassador to Syria who’s now a fellow at Yale University and the Middle East Institute in Washington.
On Monday, Riad Hijab, a former Syrian prime minister who defected and headed the main Western-backed opposition group for the past two years, resigned without giving any explanation, according to a statement on his official Twitter account.
Hijab’s High Negotiations Committee earlier this month refused to attend a planned Russian-organized peace conference between Assad and opposition groups in Sochi, saying it was usurping the role of long-stalled negotiations in Geneva led by the United Nations. Russia has now revived the proposal for the Sochi meeting, which is expected to take place soon.
— With assistance by Scott Rose.
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