Syria’s strongest alliance in the ten-year war, Russia’s Vladimir Putin has condemned “foreign factions” still fighting in the country.
Vladimir Putin of Russia and Bashar al-Assad of Syria are meeting in Moscow to discuss the alliance between their forces and how to control the last rebel areas in Syria.
Monday night’s meeting between the two presidents was the first since they held a meeting in the Syrian capital in January last year.
“The biggest problem, in my opinion, is that foreign forces remain in some parts of the country without the permission of the United Nations and without your permission,” Putin told al-Assad, according to a Kremlin report Tuesday.
Syrian TV reported that the meeting was lengthy and said the two had been joined by Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal al-Meqdad and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to discuss ties and “fight terrorism”.
Al-Assad’s most powerful ally in Syria’s 10-year war, Putin welcomed the Syrian leader to Russia in 2018 at his summer residence at the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
The Russian military played a key role in reversing the Syrian tide in favor of al-Assad in 2015, which helped him regain much of his lost territory.
However, large parts of Syria are not controlled by the government, with Turkish troops stationed in the north and northwest – the last strongholds against al-Assad – by American troops east and northeast of Kurdish.
‘Order 90 per cent share’
Al-Assad, who is also a supporter of Iran during the war, has been out of the country several times since 2011.
“I am delighted to meet you in Moscow, six years since the start of our anti-terrorism alliance,” Syrian TV quoted Assad.
Putin told foreign Syrian forces in Syria without the UN’s view that it was a hindrance to their integration, the Kremlin said.
Putin also praised him for winning a fourth term in the May presidential election.
“The terrorists have caused a great deal of damage and the Syrian government, led by you, controls 90% of the territory,” Putin said, according to the Kremlin.
The Kremlin says al-Assad has thanked the Russian leader for helping the people of Syria and for his efforts to end the “spread of terrorism”.
He praised what he said was the success of the Russian and Syrian forces in “liberating the occupied territories” of Syria.
‘Finishing the Release’
Al-Assad also described the sanctions imposed on other countries in Syria as “anti-social” and “illegal”.
The United States imposed sanctions on Syria last year, saying its aim was to force al-Assad to end the war and accept a political solution.
The Syrian news agency SANA said the two leaders had discussed cooperation between the Syrian and Russian forces “in the fight against terrorism and in achieving the liberation of territories controlled by terrorist groups”.
In recent weeks, Syrian freedom fighters say Russian warplanes have carried out war threats in the northwestern state of Idlib, the country’s last stronghold. The region is home to some four million people, most of whom have fled the war zone.
Last week, Russia’s war-torn agreement went into effect to end the cycle of government and fought valiantly in the southern city of Deraa. The alliance brought the areas where terrorists were detained in the city for the first time since 2013.
Support for Russian politicians and the military in Syria, which oversees the military, has been based on alliances between Moscow and the West, which imposed sanctions on Moscow in favor of al-Assad’s regime.
The Syrian conflict began in March 2011 with anti-government protests and later became a civil war that killed hundreds of thousands and displaced half of the country’s 23 million people, including five million refugees outside the country.