Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday spoke to Saudi Arabian King Salman about finding a solution to the Syria crisis, just two days before he is due to address the UN on the issue, the Kremlin said.
In a telephone conversation at Russia’s behest, the two men “exchanged views on regional security matters, first and foremost, in the context of finding ways to settle the conflict in Syria,” a statement posted on the Kremlin’s Web site said.
They also discussed “building more effective international cooperation in the fight against the so-called Islamic State and other terrorist groups,” it said.
A decades-long backer of the Damascus regime, Moscow has steadfastly supported Syrian President Bashar al-Assad throughout four-and-a-half years of war, which have killed more than 240,000 people.
Saudi Arabia is part of a US-led coalition that began an air campaign against the Islamic State in Syria in September last year, and insists it will never cooperate with the al-Assad regime.
Today, Putin is to address the UN General Assembly in New York to outline his plan for Syria, notably the idea of expanding a coalition, which would include al-Assad’s army, to fight the Islamic State.
He will also meet US President Barack Obama on the sidelines of the gathering, their first formal talk in two years.
Russia has lately boosted its military presence in Syria, deploying more troops and warplanes to an air base along with new arms deliveries to al-Assad’s forces. Last week, the Syrian army used Russian drones against the extremists for the first time.
On Saturday, a Syrian military source told reporters that at least 15 Russian cargo airplanes transporting “equipment and personnel” had landed at the Hmeimim military base in western Syria in the past two weeks.
Moscow’s military buildup comes with Washington’s own policy for fighting the Islamic State in Syria in increasing disarray.
The US has a US$500 million program to train and equip vetted moderates recruited from among the rebels fighting al-Assad, but it has faced repeated setbacks.
Washington and its allies have up until now insisted that al-Assad has no future in Syria, but there have been recent signs of a change, perhaps allowing him an interim role until a new government is formed.
On Friday, a Russian diplomat raised the possibility of Moscow joining the Washington-led coalition against the Islamic State provided the UN Security Council gave a legal framework for its action.
“It is in theory possible that all those involved join the coalition if it receives the approval of the UN Security Council,” Ilya Rogatchev, head of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department for New Challenges and Threats, told reporters.
Former Nicaraguan president Violeta Chamorro, who brought peace to Nicaragua after years of war and was the first woman elected president in the Americas, died on Saturday at the age of 95, her family said. Chamorro, who ruled the poor Central American country from 1990 to 1997, “died in peace, surrounded by the affection and love of her children,” said a statement issued by her four children. As president, Chamorro ended a civil war that had raged for much of the 1980s as US-backed rebels known as the “Contras” fought the leftist Sandinista government. That conflict made Nicaragua one of
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