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Al Assad meets with Putin in Sochi, Russia on Tuesday November 21, 2017 [PPIO]
“Already a talk is planned with the emir of Qatar and tomorrow—with the President of the U.S. Donald Trump, while afterwards (I will speak) with leaders from countries in the region,” a statement from the Kremlin quoted Putin on Tuesday.
In addition to President Donald Trump, Putin is expected to call the Qatari Emir to discuss resolving the Syrian civil war.
Al Assad had arrived in an unannounced visit to Sochi on Tuesday to coordinate peace initiatives ahead of an expected summit involving Iran, Russia and Turkey in the same port city.
The Syrian State news agency SANA quoted Al Assad as saying that “Russia’s military and economic support to Syria has achieved important results in various fields, such as humanitarian relief and military gains”.
“We still have a long way to go before we achieve a complete victory over terrorists. But as far as our joint work in fighting terrorism on the territory of Syria is concerned, this military operation is indeed wrapping up,” Putin told Al Assad, according to the Kremlin.
SANA said that Al Assad informed Putin that he was ready to move forward with a political process which will put an end to the Syrian civil war.
“We believe that the situation we now have on the ground and in the political sense permits us to expect progress in the political process. We count on the support of Russia to ensure the non-interference of outside players in the political process,” Al Assad said.
Syria has in the past year gained the upper hand against Islamist extremist rebel groups, such as Al Nusra and the Islamic State, largely thanks to Russian air support.
Read more: Alliances Shift in the Middle East as all Roads Lead to Moscow
Russia: Islamic State Routed in Syria
The BRICS Post with inputs from Agencies
