The White House has strongly condemned a visit to Moscow by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
A spokesman criticised Russia for putting on a “red carpet welcome”.
The Syrian leader’s trip on Tuesday came three weeks after Russia began air strikes in Syria against Islamic State militants and other forces.
It was Mr Assad’s first overseas trip since civil war broke out in Syria in 2011. The conflict has claimed more than a quarter of a million lives.
On Thursday, a team of Russian MPs is due to meet President Assad and the head of the Syrian parliament in Damascus.
While in Moscow, Mr Assad made a point of expressing his gratitude for Russia’s military intervention in the conflict.
He said Russia’s involvement had stopped “terrorism” becoming “more widespread and harmful” in Syria.
For his part, Mr Putin said Moscow’s hope was that a “long-term resolution can be achieved on the basis of a political process with the participation of all political forces, ethnic and religious groups”.
The BBC’s Steve Rosenberg in Moscow says that by hosting the Syrian leader, President Putin was sending a clear message to the West – that Moscow is a key player in the Middle East, and that there can be no solution to the Syrian conflict without Russia’s involvement.
One Comment
Tom Welsh
“The conflict has claimed more than a quarter of a million lives”.
And – if true – every one of those lives is the responsibility of the armed terrorists who tried to overthrow the legitimate Syrian government by violence.
Whereas the 2.8 million lives – over ten times as many – that have been lost in Iraq since 1990 are entirely and exclusively the responsibility of the United States government, which launched two unprovoked wars of aggression against Iraq, and also imposed sanctions that killed at least half a million CHILDREN. (As publicly admitted by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright).