Putin congratulates Assad on liberating Palmyra
Print Edition
RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin spoke by phone with Syrian President Bashar Assad yesterday, congratulating him on his forces retaking Palmyra, the Kremlin said.
“In a conversation with the Syrian president, Vladimir Putin congratulated his colleague on Syrian forces liberating the city of Palmyra from terrorists,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
“Despite the withdrawal of the main part of Russia’s military contingent from Syria, the Russian armed forces will continue to help the Syrian authorities fight terrorism and rid their land of extremist groups,” Putin was quoted as saying.
Assad in turn “praised the help given by the Russian space and air forces” and said “successes such as the liberation of Palmyra would be impossible without Russia’s support,” Peskov said.
Syrian television said Assad told Putin the city would be rebuilt. “Palmyra was demolished more than once through the centuries and we will restore it anew so it will be a treasure of cultural heritage for the world,” it quoted him as saying.
Assad told Putin that the conflict in Syria, now in its sixth year, was a “struggle for oil,” adding: “There is a lot of oil everywhere but there is only one Palmyra,” Peskov said.
The loss of Palmyra represents one of the biggest setbacks for the hardline Islamist group since it declared a caliphate in 2014 across large parts of Syria and Iraq.
Earlier this month, Putin ordered the bulk of the Russian contingent in Syria to pull out after five months of airstrikes, saying the Kremlin had achieved most of its objectives.
But Putin said later that Russia could scale up its military presence in Syria again within hours and would still bomb terrorist groups there despite a partial withdrawal of forces ordered after military successes.
Putin also spoke by telephone with UNESCO chief Irina Bokova about the fate of Palmyra, the Kremlin spokesman said.
Putin had told Assad of “the importance of preserving this unique historic city for world culture,” Peskov added.
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