Official Russian media published a video showing Russian President Vladimir Putin welcoming the head of the Syrian regime, Bashar al-Assad, in the Russian capital, Moscow, without prior announcement from the Syrian side.
The Russian news agency (TASS) published a video this morning, Thursday, July 25, showing the meeting between Putin and al-Assad in the Kremlin.
During the meeting, Putin stated that he would discuss bilateral relations and the regional situation, which tends towards escalation, which also applies to Syria, according to the Russian Sputnik news agency.
Putin expressed his intention to discuss trade and economic relations between Russia and Syria with al-Assad, stating that “there are still many questions about it,” according to the Russian agency.
On his part, al-Assad said that Russia and Syria had gone through difficult tests over the past decades, pointing out that relations between the two countries “have maintained a level of trust, which is a sign of their maturity.”
Considering the current geopolitical situation, the meeting is important to discuss various scenarios, added Bashar al-Assad.
Until the time of writing this news, no official announcement was issued by the Syrian side regarding the visit.
Al-Assad’s visit to Moscow comes at a time when there are recurrent talks about a potential meeting between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Bashar al-Assad, with speculations that the meeting could take place in Moscow.
The Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied on July 24 any scheduled meeting between Erdoğan and al-Assad in Moscow, following rumors that spread in Turkish circles about the same.
A day earlier, reports by the Turkish newspaper, Daily Sabah, citing an “informed” source, mentioned that the first meeting between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Syrian regime head Bashar al-Assad is set to be held in the Russian capital, Moscow.
At the time, it added that Putin would mediate the talks, which Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani might be invited to, with the likelihood that Iran would not be invited to the meeting, which may occur in August, according to the Turkish newspaper.
On July 15, al-Assad linked the possibility of meeting Erdoğan with achieving results, saying, “If the meeting, embrace, or reprimand, as commonly said, serves the country’s interest, I will do it, but the problem does not lie here; it lies in the substance of the meeting.”
Al-Assad added, “We have not heard what the objective is—solving the problem? Improving relations? Restoring them to their normal state? Or asking why the relations deviated from their normal path for the past 13 years.”
Despite Moscow expressing a welcome towards contacts with neighboring countries that would allow Turkish normalization with the regime to develop successfully, according to the Russian president’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, the British Middle East Eye website reported on July 11 that Putin opposes the idea of hosting the meeting between al-Assad and Erdoğan in Iraq and prefers to hold it in Turkey.
The website, citing “informed” sources, reported that despite the direction to conduct Turkish talks with the regime in Baghdad under Iraqi government sponsorship, the Iraqi Prime Minister aims to host the first personal meeting between Erdoğan and al-Assad in more than a decade.