Russian President Vladimir Putin said its Army had “saved Syria as a state” after meeting with Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad in Russia, as Syrian regime forces take an upper hand over rebels and the Islamic State (IS) group.
Monday’s talks came during an unannounced “working visit” by Mr. Assad to the Black Sea resort of Sochi, ahead of a summit between Mr. Putin and the leaders of Turkey and Iran on Wednesday aimed at re-booting the Syrian peace process.
“As for our joint work in the fight against terrorism in Syria, this military operation is coming to an end,” Mr. Putin said, according to a transcript published on the Kremlin’s website.
The Russian Army’s Chief of General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, told Russian news agencies that “despite the fact that there remains a raft of unresolved problems” the military stage “is coming to its logical conclusion”.
Mr. Putin will on Wednesday host Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Iran’s Hassan Rouhani for the first in a series of summits on the peace process, ahead of parallel UN-led talks in Geneva set for November 28.
The cooperation comes despite Turkey still officially being on an opposite side of the Syria conflict from Russia and Iran, which are key Assad backers.
The Sochi summit will help to “relaunch direct negotiations between the Syrian government and the range of the opposition”, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Meanwhile, different factions of the Syrian opposition will meet from Wednesday in Riyadh in talks hosted by Saudi Arabia.
The aim of the Saudi-backed High Negotiations Committee is to reach consensus on a strategy for talks in Geneva, which will focus on a new constitution for Syria and fresh elections.