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Syria military operation 'wrapping up', Putin tells Assad in Russia talks Vladimir Putin briefs Donald Trump on plan to end Syrian civil war
(about 9 hours later)
Vladimir Putin has hosted Bashar al-Assad for talks during which the two presidents agreed the focus in the Syrian conflict was switching from military operations to the search for a political solution. Vladimir Putin has sought Donald Trump’s broad endorsement for his plan to bring the Syrian civil war to a close on largely Russian and Iranian terms, after the defeat of Islamic State and the repeated pushbacks of Syrian rebels.
The Russian president met his Syrian counterpart before a gathering, planned for this week in Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi with the leaders of Turkey and Iran – two other powers heavily involved in the conflict in Syria. Putin briefed his American counterpart on the phone for more than an hour, as the Russian president prepared to host a summit in the Black Sea resort of Sochi with the leaders of Turkey and Iran – two other powers heavily involved in the conflict in Syria.
In comments released by the Kremlin, Putin also said he would follow up his meeting with Assad with telephone calls to Donald Trump and Middle Eastern leaders including the emir of Qatar. The summit, a display of Russia’s restored influence in the Middle East, is expected to discuss Putin’s plans for fresh deconfliction zones and a Syrian national dialogue to draw up a new Syrian constitution that would leave President Bashar al-Assad entrenched and entitled to stand for election again.
“We still have a long way to go before we achieve a complete victory over terrorists. But as far as our joint work in fighting terrorism on the territory of Syria is concerned, this military operation is indeed wrapping up,” Putin said. “I think that now the most important thing, of course, is to move on the political questions, and I note with satisfaction your readiness to work with all those who want peace and a solution [to the conflict].” Moscow said Putin, in his talks with Trump, conveyed “the message of the necessity to keep the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Syria, and to reach a political settlement based on principals to be worked out in a full-scale negotiation process in Syria”.
According to the Kremlin, the meeting between the Russian and Syrian presidents took place on Monday in Sochi, where Putin has a residence. Details were not released until Tuesday morning. Increasingly confident that he has marginalised both pluralist and Islamist groups still holding out against Assad, Putin plans to hold a Syrian national dialogue in early December to which he will invite hundreds of Syrian groups that have reached reconciliation agreements with Assad.
Assad told the Russian leader: “At this stage, especially after we achieved victory over terrorists, it is in our interests to move forward with the political process. And we believe that the situation we now have on the ground and in the political sense permits us to expect progress in the political process. We count on the support of Russia to ensure the non-interference of outside players in the political process.” Western diplomats fear Putin has decided in effect to bypass the deadlocked UN Syrian peace process in Geneva, which is due to restart on 28 November, and will instead oversee a parallel peace track.
Putin and Assad last met on 20 October 2015 in Moscow, a few weeks after Russia launched a military operation in Syria that turned the tide of the conflict in Assad’s favour. Western diplomats are urging Putin to recognise that an imposed settlement that leaves dissidents excluded will only lead to further bloodshed, and a European refusal to provide reconstruction funds.
This week’s meetings in Russia are likely to be seen as an attempt to marginalise the UN-sponsored peace talks in Geneva, and entrench Assad’s position in power. In the run-up to the trilateral summit, Putin hosted Assad in Sochi for four hours of talks on Monday, where they asserted that the military stage of the conflict was coming to an end. The talks were not disclosed until Assad had returned to Damascus.
Details of Putin’s talks with Assad came as leading figures in the Syrian opposition quit the high negotiations committee, the umbrella body that has led the opposition in the Geneva talks since 2015. They protested in a joint statement they were being pressed to adopt a negotiating platform that would allow Assad to remain in power. It was the first time the two men had met since Assad visited Moscow in October 2015 to discuss the surprise Russian military intervention in Syria to protect the Syrian leader from inexorable defeat.
They also rejected pressure to allow the Moscow Group, a rival opposition group seen by much of the HNC as a stooge of the Assad regime, to become part of an expanded negotiating team. In the four-hour meeting, Putin told Assad, according to the Kremlin: “We’re still a long way off fully defeating terrorism. But as far as concerns our work … on Syrian territory, the military operation is coming to an end.
Advocates of a larger unified opposition claim it deprives Assad of an excuse not to start serious negotiations. Talks to establish the opposition’s revised negotiating team are due to last two days in Riyadh, beginning on Wednesday with Russia’s Syrian specialists in attendance. “Now the most important thing, of course, is to move on to the political questions, and I note with satisfaction your readiness to work with all those who want peace and a solution to the conflict.
It is likely that Saudi Arabia, a long-term supporter of the Syrian opposition, is joining calls for the new negotiating team to abandon its insistence that Assad must announce he will step aside as part of a political transition. Assad’s military advances over the past year – including the capture of Aleppo aided by Russian air force and Iranian militia – has narrowed the political options of the opposition, and their international backers. In carefully scripted words, Assad told the Russian leader: “At this stage, especially after we achieved victory over terrorists, it is in our interests to move forward with the political process.”
Resignations were tendered by the HNC head, Riyad Hijab, a former prime minister under Assad who defected following the 2011 resignation, and a range of other HNC members, Although Tuesday’s Putin-Trump call also covered Ukraine, North Korea and Afghanistan, the focus was on Putin setting out the terms of his diplomatic push to end the Syrian civil war.
“I find myself forced to announce my resignation from the HNC wishing it good luck, and wishing peace and security to my beloved country, Syria,” Hijab said. Putin’s peace plan will leave tens of thousands of Iranian militia inside Syria, and arguably Iran is emerging as the single biggest victor from the conflict.
In the four-hour Assad-Putin talks, the account set out by the Kremlin reported that Assad assented to the proposal for a Syrian national dialogue conference, likely to be held in December. But Putin is facing problems persuading Turkey, long-term backers of the Syrian opposition, that any settlement will not strengthen Kurdish independence forces in Northern Syria. The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, regards the Syrian Kurds, the key military force in pushing back against Isis in Raqqa, as inextricably linked with Kurdish PKK forces, which Turkey says is operating as a terrorist group inside its borders.
Putin hailed Assad’s apparent readiness to cooperate with all parties seeking a peaceful settlement of the Syrian crisis. The US has also said it will keep a military presence inside Syria, partly to ensure that the integrity of the UN peace process is maintained.
Putin said: “A final and inevitable defeat of the terrorists is close in Syria. I think now the main thing is to move to political processes, and I am pleased to see your readiness to work with everyone willing to establish peace and find solutions.” In a sign that a triumphant Putin is dividing a demoralised opposition, 10 senior figures in the Syrian opposition umbrella group, the High Negotiations Committee, resigned including Riyad Hijab, the former Syrian prime minister. They protested that their negotiating team were being pressured into accepting that any peace deal will leave Assad in office.
Staffan de Mistura, the UN’s special envoy for Syria, is still proposing to restart the Geneva talks at the end of this month, but western diplomats are increasingly wary that Sochi summits will turn the UN talks into a sideshow. They fear Putin will push for an agreement between the Assad government and exhausted opponents of the regime, but the value of any deal will depend on the breadth of political support the process secures. The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, welcomed the resignation of Hijab and his allies, saying: “The retreat of radically minded opposition figures from playing the main role will make it possible to unite this motley opposition – internal and external – on a more reasonable, realistic and constructive platform. We will support the efforts made by Saudi Arabia in this respect.”
Turkey will also be pressing for the Kurdish groups to be excluded from the process, a measure Russia is reluctant to accept. The new negotiating team was due to be formed in two days of talks in Riyadh due to commence on Wednesday.
The pressure for a revised negotiating team has largely come from Saudi Arabia. Riyadh has backed the HNC since 2015, but appears to have concluded the decisive tilt in the military balance to Assad over the past year means it is no longer realistic to make Assad’s removal a precondition for talks.