Assad makes last-minute trip to Russia before trilateral summit - Al-Monitor: The Middle Eastʼs leading independent news source since 2012

Maxim A. Suchkov

Maxim A. Suchkov

Nov 21, 2017

Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) meets with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Russia November 20, 2017. Picture taken November 20, 2017. Sputnik/Mikhail Klimentyev/Kremlin via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY - RC1150583BD0 — Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) meets with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Russia, Nov. 20, 2017. — Sputnik/Mikhail Klimentyev/Kremlin

Hosting Syria talks in Sochi presents challenges for Russia

Maxim A. Suchkov

Maxim A. Suchkov

A general view of a meeting of Intra-Syria peace talks with Syrian Negotiation Commission (SNC) delegation and U.N Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura, prior to a round of negotiations, during the Intra Syria talks at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva Switzerland, November 29, 2017. REUTERS/Martial Trezzini/Pool - RC17FABA5450

Syrian opposition can win, as long as it agrees to lose

Anton Mardasov

A Turkish military armoured vehicle guards on the border line located opposite the Syrian town of Atimah, Idlib province, in this picture taken from Reyhanli, Hatay province, Turkey October 10, 2017. REUTERS/Osman Orsal - RC117E0C0980

Putin man in the middle between Assad, Erdogan over Idlib

Week in Review

People sit in the back of a truck as they celebrate what they said was the liberation of villages from Islamist rebels near the city of Ras al-Ain in the province of Hasakah, after capturing it from Islamist rebels November 6, 2013. Redur Xelil, spokesman for the armed wing of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), said Kurdish militias had seized the city of Ras al-Ain and all its surrounding villages. Syrian Kurdish fighters have captured more territory from Islamist rebels in northeastern Syria

Turkey backtracking on 'red lines' for Syria's Kurds

Fehim Tastekin

In Paris, reporting on Turkish politics