President Trump spoke for more than an hour by phone Tuesday with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, discussing global hot spots Syria, Iran, North Korea and Ukraine.
A day earlier, Putin met with Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad in Russia — and Moscow released footage of the two warmly embracing at the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
The resort is the site of a summit involving Russia, Turkey and Iran ahead of a new round of Syria peace talks in Geneva later this month.
Assad’s meeting with Putin was not announced beforehand and the Kremlin did not make it public until Tuesday morning.
“I passed on to [Putin] and all Russian people our greetings and gratitude for all of the efforts that Russia made to save our country,” Assad told Russian leaders in televised remarks.
Team Trump said that the president and Putin focused on terrorism and ISIS as well in their phone talk.
“The two presidents affirmed the importance of fighting terrorism together throughout the Middle East and Central Asia and agreed to explore ways to further cooperate in the fight against ISIS, al Qaeda, the Taliban and other terrorist organizations,” the White House said in a statement.
“President Trump and President Putin also discussed how to implement a lasting peace in Ukraine, and the need to continue international pressure on North Korea to halt its nuclear weapon and missile programs.”
Assad was called to Russia to get him to agree to potential peace initiatives drafted by Russia, Turkey and Iran, according to the Kremlin.
Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said the Russian president had previously assured the leaders of Turkey and Iran that “Russia will work with Syrian leadership to prepare the groundwork for the understandings that could be reached in Sochi on Wednesday and to make sure that agreements that could be reached would be viable.”
The trip to Russia was a rare occurrence for the Syrian despot, marking the second time he has left his country since the civil war began there in March 2011.
Assad also traveled to Russia in October 2015 after Moscow launched military efforts to bolster the Assad regime’s forces.
The Kremlin said Putin briefed Trump in the phone call about his talks with the Syrian leader and plans for a political settlement in Syria.
Trump and Putin spoke informally several times last week when they attended a summit in Vietnam, and agreed on a number of principles for the future of war-torn Syria.
With AP
