"Only the consolidation of all forces will allow the country to get on its feet": Putin held a meeting with Syrian President Assad in the Kremlin

On Monday afternoon, September 13, a meeting of the presidents of Russia and Syria took place in the Kremlin.

This was reported by the press service of the Russian leader.

During the meeting, Vladimir Putin congratulated Bashar al-Assad on his re-election to the post of head of the SAR.

According to him, the results of the presidential elections indicate that Assad enjoys confidence, despite all the difficulties and tragedies of previous years.

“Still, you are associated with the process of recovery and return to normal life.

I know that you are doing a lot for this, including to establish a dialogue with your political opponents.

I really hope that this process will continue.

Only the consolidation of all forces in Syria will allow the country to get back on its feet and start progressive development, moving forward, ”added the President of the Russian Federation.

The presidential elections in Syria were held on May 26.

13,540,860 Syrians voted for Assad, which is 95.1% of the total number of voters who came to the polls.

The Russian leader also announced the development of trade and economic ties between the countries.

So, in the first six months of 2021, the volume of trade increased by 3.5 times.

“I hope that through joint efforts we will be able to help the Syrian people get on their feet in every sense of the word, help restore the economy, social sphere, healthcare, above all, today,” he said.

At the same time, the main problem of Syria, Putin called the presence of foreign armed forces on the territory of the republic without a UN decision and Damascus' sanctions for this, which "clearly contradicts international law."

According to him, this fact does not give the Syrian authorities the opportunity to make "maximum efforts to consolidate the country and to move towards its restoration at a pace that would be possible if the entire territory was controlled by a legitimate government."

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Vladimir Putin also noted that thanks to the joint efforts of Russia and Syria, “very serious, significant damage” was inflicted on terrorists and the vast territory of the SAR was liberated - Damascus controls 90% of the country.

At the same time, he noted the persistence of hotbeds of resistance on the part of terrorists who continue to terrorize civilians.

“Nevertheless, refugees are actively returning to the liberated regions.

I saw with my own eyes, when I was visiting you at your invitation, how people are actively restoring their homes, actively working to return in the full sense of the word to a peaceful life, ”the President concluded.

In turn, Bashar al-Assad thanked Russia for the provided humanitarian aid and food.

Separately, he expressed gratitude to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation for a clear position on the protection of "legitimate generally recognized principles and norms of international law" and for the policy pursued on the international platform, the purpose of which was "to prohibit the spread of terrorism to please those states that support it and set a goal for themselves. skillfully use terrorism to carry out their own tasks. "

The Syrian President also stated that the actions of the armies of the two countries led not only to significant results in the de-occupation of the territories seized by terrorists, but also facilitated the return of refugees.

“Considering the fact that international terrorism knows no borders, spreads like an infection throughout the world, our armies, I can state, have made a huge contribution to protecting all mankind from this evil,” Assad said.

Meanwhile, he admitted that due to "certain reasons", the political processes carried out by the Syrian authorities have been suspended for three years.

“There are certain states that destructively influence the possibility of conducting political processes in every possible way.

There are other factors, but we understand them perfectly and are trying to do everything possible to solve these pressing problems. "

According to him, a number of states have imposed anti-human sanctions on the Syrian people.

At the same time, Damascus in such conditions continues various processes, including the establishment of a political dialogue, he added.

Putin's visit to Damascus

Recall that in January 2020, Vladimir Putin paid a visit to Damascus.

The head of state met with Bashar al-Assad, they visited the Umayyad mosque, the tomb of the prophet Yahya (John the Baptist) and the Cathedral of the Holy Virgin Mary in Damascus, to which Putin presented the icon of the Mother of God.

Another item on the program of the visit was a visit to the command post of the grouping of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.

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Later, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu compared the preparation of this visit with a Hollywood thriller: “If you shoot a detailed and disclosed film, it can be, on the one hand, such a very, very good textbook and manual for organizing this kind of work of all services without exception ... On the other hand, it will be such a thriller worse than any Hollywood or any other. "

According to him, the visit of the President of the Russian Federation demonstrated to the citizens of Syria and the whole world that the republic is entering a new stage.

Let us remind you that the Russian operation in Syria began on September 30, 2015, when the Russian Aerospace Forces, at the request of the legitimate government of the Arab Republic, began to inflict air strikes on the positions of the "Islamic State" * in the country.

In March 2016, Vladimir Putin decided to start the withdrawal of most of the Aerospace Forces group in connection with the successful completion of the assigned tasks.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reported that over the two years of the operation in Syria, the Russian air group eliminated more than 900 training camps, over 660 ammunition factories and 1.5 thousand units of IS military equipment.

Announcing this, Shoigu stressed that before the start of the operation of the Russian Aerospace Forces, terrorists controlled more than 70% of the territory of Syria, and the number of the group was up to 60 thousand people.

It was also reported that since the beginning of 2015, more than 54 thousand terrorists have been killed in Syria.

* "Islamic State" (IS) - the organization was recognized as terrorist by the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of December 29, 2014.