Syrian President Assad meets Putin in Russia as part of dialogue with Turkey

Russian President Vladimir Putin has hosted his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad in Moscow for talks on bilateral relations and the situation in the Middle East, Russian and Syrian state media reported on Thursday.

The meeting took place on Wednesday evening, according to Russia's official news agency RIA.

According to Vladimir Putin, this meeting is an opportunity to discuss the situation in the region, which is becoming increasingly tense. This also directly concerns Syria, the Russian president said, quoted by RIA.

Putin also highlighted promising opportunities for economic and trade relations between Syria and Russia.

For his part, Assad highlighted the difficult challenges that Russian-Syrian relations have faced in recent decades, but noted that the two countries have always managed to overcome them on the basis of mutual trust and credibility, according to RIA.

Assad said his meeting with Putin was “very important” to discuss events unfolding in Eurasia and around the world.

The meeting comes as part of ongoing regional efforts to restart direct negotiations between senior Turkish and Syrian officials. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said earlier this month that he had invited Assad to a trilateral summit with Putin, either in Turkey or elsewhere.

Moscow has tried to mediate between Damascus and Ankara, which backs Syrian armed Sunni opposition groups. No progress has been made in the talks launched in 2022, as Assad has pushed for the withdrawal of Turkish troops from northern Syria. Ankara fears that such a move would create a power vacuum that could be filled by the US-allied, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which Turkey views as a major threat to its national security because of Ankara’s decades-long Kurdish problem. Turkey equates the Kurdish-led SDF with the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has waged an armed campaign for Kurdish autonomy in Turkey since 1984. While Ankara, Washington and most European capitals consider the PKK a terrorist organization, the SDF is a major ally of the U.S.-led international coalition against the Islamic State in parts of northern and eastern Syria.

Speaking to Sky News Arabia on Wednesday, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan reaffirmed his country's commitment to resume direct negotiations with the Syrian government as part of ongoing mediation efforts in Iraq. But Fidan reiterated that Turkish forces could not withdraw from the war-torn country until Syrian opposition groups and Damascus reconcile.

The last meeting between the two leaders was in March 2023, during Assad's visit to Moscow, which coincided with the 12th anniversary of the Syrian civil war. Discussions focused on Syria's reconstruction and Russia's efforts to stabilize the war-torn country.

In March, Putin and Assad held a phone conversation, during which the Syrian leader expressed his country's support for Russia in its fight against terrorism, SANA reported at the time, in reference to the Islamic State-claimed attack on Crocus City Hall near Moscow that killed at least 144 people on March 22.

Russia has supported Assad throughout the Syrian civil conflict, as the Syrian leader was isolated regionally and globally due to his government's brutal crackdown on peaceful anti-regime protests in 2011. In 2015, the Russian military formally intervened in the Syrian war to support Assad's forces against the opposition. With Russian support, Assad has managed to regain much of the territory he lost early in the war. Russia maintains several bases in Syria, including the Khmeimim airbase in Latakia province on the Mediterranean coast and a naval base in the seaport of Tartus.

Wednesday's meeting coincides with growing regional tensions stemming from the war between Israel and Hamas that has been raging in the Gaza Strip since October 2023.

Iranian-backed groups in the region, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthi rebels, have launched near-daily attacks on Israel in support of the Palestinian group Hamas. In Syria, several groups affiliated with Iran or Hezbollah have repeatedly launched drones and missiles at Israel. The Israeli military has responded with several strikes inside Syrian territory.

In April, the Russian Foreign Ministry criticized an alleged Israeli strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus that killed at least seven people, including two IRGC commanders.

We consider any attack on diplomatic and consular facilities, the inviolability of which is guaranteed by the relevant Vienna Conventions, to be categorically unacceptable, the ministry said in a statement.

In early March, Moscow also condemned the Israeli airstrikes that killed more than 40 people in Aleppo, Syria. The Foreign Ministry called the attack an aggressive act that constitutes a flagrant violation of Syria's sovereignty.

Ezgi Akin contributed to this report from Ankara.