Russian President Vladimir Putin met Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad on Thursday and said their “military success” in Syria allowed for a large-scale “political process” leading to the withdrawal of foreign forces and the country’s reconstruction. A day after UN special envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura warned that a government assault on the rebel-held area of Idlib could affect 2.3 million people, Putin met Assad in the southern Russian city of Sochi.
Russia’s President congratulated his Syrian counterpart for “the significant success of the Syrian government army in the fight against terrorist groups. Thanks to the efforts made by your military personnel in recent years, very important steps have been taken to further strengthen the legitimate authority. The terrorists laid down their arms at key points in Syria, which allowed restoring Syria’s infrastructure, pushing them back, practically stopping their operation near the Syrian capital.” The key message however followed, as Putin indicated that now, after these military successes, undoubtedly additional conditions have been created for the resumption of the full-fledged political process.
Al Assad said that over the past weeks, hundreds of thousands of Syrians have been able to return to their homes. He added that millions of Syrians are on their way too, now that stability improves, and all this opens the door to the political process that we started some time ago. He emphasised that he “always said, and now I repeat once again, that we always enthusiastically support the political process, which should go hand in hand with the fight against terrorism.”
In his opening remarks, however, he said that we know that this will not be easy, since there are countries that do not want stability to return to Syria.
