The country is approaching the “final, inevitable victory over the terrorists,” said Putin, according to the AFP news agency at a meeting in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
“The military operation is actually coming to an end.” The next step will be about initiating political processes. Most of the areas in Syria are free of terrorists and safe again. Fleeing civilians are able to return. The war on terror, Assad explained, has delivered important humanitarian, military and political results.
According to the report, Assad thanked the Russian soldiers and was happy to welcome them on Syrian soil. For about two years now, Russia has been flying air strikes against jihadists in consultation with Syria.
On Wednesday, Putin will receive Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Iranian President Hassan Ruhani for a summit on the Syrian conflict. While Russia and Iran support the government of Assad, Turkey is on the side of the jihadists.
Putin on Tuesday called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Saudi King Salman, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Qatar’s foreign minister.
Six months after President Donald Trump surprisingly ordered an airstrike against a Syrian government airbase, after he had promised to end the hostilities with Russia, the fate of ISIS has been sealed.
At the time, Trump’s aides said the airstrike would give the US renewed leverage across the Middle East, but Trump has increasingly become a bystander as Putin takes the lead in shaping postwar Syria.
Putin also called Trump on Tuesday to brief him on his talks with the popular Syrian leader.
“Putin has won” in Syria, Ilan Goldenberg, who worked on Middle East issues at the Pentagon and State Department under President Barack Obama, told Politico. “That’s partly Obama’s fault — and partly Trump’s fault.”
But earlier this year Trump cancelled a covert CIA program that armed “moderate” Syrian terrorists fighting Assad’s regime.
The US has expressed concern about Iran’s role in peace talks. “Iran is not going to be in charge, and Iran is not going to have any sort of leadership in that situation to where they can do more harm,” Trump’s United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley warned in September.
