Damascus: Russian President Vladimir Putin criticized the presence of foreign troops in Syria, said they were there to the will of the Syrian government and blocked the consolidation of the ripped state of the war, Kremlin said Tuesday.
Putin refers to hundreds of US soldiers placed in East Syria and worked with LED Kurdish fighters in fighting militant Islamic countries, and Turkish forces in North Syria.
Speaking during a rare meeting in Moscow on Monday night with his Syrian partner Bashar Assad, he said the presence of foreigners was illegal because they did not have permission to be there from the PB or Syrian government.
Russia joined the 10-year Syrian conflict in September 2015, when the Syrian military looked almost collapsed, and has since helped tell the balance of power for Assad, whose strength is now controlling most countries.
Hundreds of Russian troops were deployed throughout Syria and they also had a military air base along Syrian Mediterranean coast.
Assad rarely traveled abroad in the last decade since Syrian conflict began, except for visiting Russian and Iran’s key allies.
Assad and Putin discussed cooperation between their troops and ways to continue the operation to obtain control of the last rebel area in Syria, government media in Damascus reported.
Putin then announced he would be a self isolation because of the Coronavirus case in the inner circle.
Assad and his wife were tested positive to Coronavirus in March, and recovered three weeks later.
It was the first meeting between the two allies since they held a summit in the Syrian capital in January last year.
Both also met at the Black Sea Resort of Sochi in 2017 and in Moscow in 2015.
The Syrian TV State described a Monday meeting as a ‘long’ ‘and said the two later joined Syrian Foreign Minister and Russian Defense Minister to discuss reciprocal relations and fight terrorism.
“ This clearly violates international law and does not allow you to make maximum efforts to consolidate the country, ” Putin quoted as a telling Assad about foreign forces, according to a statement issued by the Kremlin.
“ Just consolidate all strength in Syria which will allow the state to stand up and start stable development, move forward, “Putin said.
Putin and Assad also discussed the political process in a torn war, said TV.
“ I am happy to meet you in Moscow, six years after surgery with us to fight terrorism, “The Syria TV quoted Assad said.
In the past few weeks, Syrian opposition activists said that Russian fighter aircraft had carried out attacks in the northwestern province, Idlib, the last major rebel fortress in the country.
This area is home to around 4 million people, many of them are internally displaced by conflict.
Last week, the ceasefire agreement of Russian negotiations began to apply to end the siege of the government and intense battle in the city of Southern Daraa.
This agreement brought an area held by rebels in the city under the control of the government for the first time since 2013.
“We have intention to be in Syria as the government and institutions to move in parallel between land acquisition and political processes, ” TV also quoted Assad said.
TV said during the meeting, the two leaders discussed cooperation between their forces “ in fighting terrorism and the continuation of liberation land held by terrorists.
“The Assad government refers to all groups of armed opposition as terrorists as terrorists.
The Russian president noted that “ Joint efforts we have released the main and extraordinary territory of the Syrian Republic.
“Talking to Assad, Putin added that” terrorists have suffered very serious and significant damage, and the Syrian government, led by you, controlling 90% of the region.
“Syrian conflict began in March 2011 with anti-government protests and then turned into a civil war that had killed half a million people and moved half of the country’s pre-war population of 23 million, including 5 million which was a refugee abroad.