Syrian president met Vladimir Putin in Moscow

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad met late Tuesday his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Moscow, a Kremlin source said Wednesday.

“The Syrian President al-Assad visited Moscow yesterday night and met President Putin,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, adding that the meeting had lasted “long enough”.

Peskov said the two leaders discussed Russian airstrikes in Syria, the regime’s operations and their counterterrorism cooperation.

He declined to comment on whether they discussed Assad’s future in a potential resolution to the Syrian civil war.

The meeting came after the U.S. and Russia signed an agreement Tuesday to “de-conflict” air operations above Syrian airspace.

Russia began carrying out airstrikes in Syria late last month. The strikes are aimed at supporting the Assad regime — a Russian ally — against Daesh, according to the Kremlin.

But Turkey and the West accuse Russia of targeting moderate Syrian groups opposed to Assad, many of which are supported by Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the U.S. and Europe.

To avoid military conflicts in the region, the U.S. and Russian military officials on Oct. 1 began talks about air safety above Syria.

At least 250,000 people have been killed since the beginning of the Syrian conflict in 2011, with 7.6 million internally displaced and more than 4 million having fled to nearby countries.