BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian President Bashar Assad arrived in Moscow on Tuesday, the place he’s scheduled to satisfy high ally Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Russia is a principal backer of Assad and has a broad presence in Syria, the place a 12-year uprising-turned-civil conflict has killed practically half one million individuals and displaced half the nation’s pre-war inhabitants. Moscow has performed a pivotal function in preventing again armed opposition teams making an attempt to topple Assad’s authorities by its army help, and has additionally aggressively backed Damascus towards opponents on the United Nations.
The Kremlin confirmed Tuesday that Putin will meet with Assad on Wednesday — the anniversary of the battle — in a press release carried by Russia’s state information company Tass.
In response to the assertion, “additional growth of Russian-Syrian cooperation within the political, commerce, financial and humanitarian spheres, in addition to the prospects for a complete settlement of the scenario in and round Syria,” might be on the agenda.
Assad was obtained by Putin’s particular consultant for the Center East, Mikhail Bogdanov, at Moscow’s Vnukovo worldwide airport.
Previous to a lethal Feb. 6 earthquake that killed 50,000 individuals in Turkey and Syria, Russia had been mediating talks between the 2 quake-hit nations.
Turkey and Syria have been on reverse sides in Syria’s civil conflict for over a decade. Turkey continues to again armed opposition teams that management a northwestern enclave in northwestern Syria. In December, Moscow hosted surprise talks between the Syrian and Turkish protection ministers.
Syria since final summer season has recognized the Russian-controlled Luhansk and Donetsk regions in jap Ukraine as unbiased and sovereign entities.
The Syrian, Turkish and Russian deputy overseas ministers in addition to a senior adviser to their Iranian counterpart are additionally set to carry talks Wednesday and Thursday in Moscow to debate “counterterrorism efforts” in Syria.
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Related Press author Daria Litvinova contributed from Tallinn, Estonia.