Putin Discusses with Al-Sisi and Erdogan Situation in Middle East, Syria

After his Syria visit on Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Egypt and Turkey where he held talks with his Egyptian an Turkish counterparts on the situation in the Middle East and the political settlement in Syria.   

ANKARA/CAIRO- Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday his talks with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, focused primarily on the situation in the Middle East that has deteriorated dramatically and on the Syrian settlement.

“Naturally, the focus was made on the situation in the Middle East settlement that has deteriorated dramatically and on the Syrian affairs where our countries are closely cooperating,” he told journalists after the talks, according to Itar Tass.

Putin said he had discussed possible convening of a Syrian National Dialogue Congress in early 2018 with Syrian President Bashar Assad earlier in the day.

 “We are conducting joint work to prepare and convene the Syrian National Dialogue Congress at the beginning of the next year,” he said after talks with Erdogan. “It is a secret to no one that I spoke about it with President Assad during my today’s visit to Syria.”

Putin said that Russia and Turkey agree that the United States’ decision to recognize al-Quds as Israel’s capital has a destabilizing effect on the situation in the region.

According to the Russian leader, this decision may frustrate prospects for the Palestinian-Israeli peace process. “Russia insists that this settlement be implemented exclusively and fully on the resolutions passed earlier within the United Nations,” Putin stressed. “Concrete parameters of an agreement of al-Quds’s status are a subject for direct Palestinian-Israeli talks.”

Putin, Al-Sisi Agree on Coordination of Efforts to Reach Political Settlement in Syria

Earlier, Presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia and Abdul Fattah al-Sisi of Egypt discussed the situation in Syria, with President Putin saying that Russia and Egypt have agreed to strengthen coordination of efforts to promote peace settlement in the country.

“We are grateful to our Egyptian partners for supporting the Russian initiative to convene the Syrian National Dialogue Congress. We are planning to involve in its work various groups of opposition, including representatives of the so-called Moscow and Cairo platforms,” Putin added, according to Sputnik.

Putin and Sisi met shortly after the Russian president ordered the withdrawal of troops from Syria, emphasizing that the country’s sovereignty and independence has been preserved thanks to the successful anti-terrorist operation, adding that conditions for the political settlement in the country under the auspices of the UN have been created and the refugees, that had to flee their homes, may return.

 In his turn, Sisi said that he had discussed political crises in Libya and Syria with Putin, noting that Egypt’s position coincided with Russia’s in terms of the need for expansion of de-escalation zones in Syria to create necessary conditions for further dialogue between all components of the Syrian people.

According to the Egyptian president, Moscow and Cairo have agreed to exchange reconnaissance information to fight against terrorism.

At the same time, Putin said, “We agreed to expand ties in the military and defense industry areas. First of all, in order to strengthen the anti-terrorist potential of the Egyptian Armed Forces.”

Putin: Long-Term, Fair Solutions Needed to Settle Israeli–Palestinian Conflict

The two leaders also discussed the situation in the Middle East, including the Israeli-Palestinian settlement in the wake of the controversial decision on al-Quds made by US President Donald Trump last week.

Russia and Egypt “advocate for a swift resumption of the direct Palestinian-Israeli dialogue on all controversial issues, including the status of Jerusalem (al-Quds). Long-term and fair agreements respecting the interests of both sides are needed,” President Putin said following the talks with Sisi, adding that such agreements must be in accordance with the decisions of the international community that had been earlier adopted.

“We consider any steps that anticipate the outcome of the dialogue between the Palestinians and the Israelis to be counterproductive. We believe that such steps are destabilizing, do not help resolve the situation, but, on the contrary, provoke conflict,” the Russian president said.

Egypt-Russia Ties

Speaking about the long-awaited resumption of direct flights with Egypt that have been suspended after the deadliest plane crash in history of the Russian aviation that took place in the Sinai in 2015, Putin said, “In this time, the Egyptian side did great work on increasing the level of security in airports. The Russian security service reported to me that we are overall ready for resumption of direct flights between Moscow and Cairo.”

Russia will seek to sign an agreement with Egypt on resumption of direct flights very soon, the president added.

Commenting on bilateral trade, Putin said that investment in the Russian industrial zone near Egypt’s northeastern city of Port Said could total $7 billion. “We believe that it will become the biggest regional center for the manufacturing and delivery of Russian goods to the markets of the Middle Eastern countries and Africa. Leading Russian companies are already expressing interest in this project.”

The trade turnover between Russia and Egypt has grown by 1.5 times during the first nine months of 2017 and exceeded $4 billion, Putin said, adding that “Russia has always recognized the particular importance of the development of friendly and mutually beneficial relations with Egypt, our long-standing and reliable partner in the Middle East and North Africa.”

Nuclear power plant

During the meeting, Russia and Egypt signed in Cairo on Monday the decrees on the implementation of the contracts on the construction of the Dabaa nuclear power plant (NPP) with Russia’s participation. The two countries signed an intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in the construction and the operation of the first Egyptian nuclear power plant in the Dabaa area on the Mediterranean Sea coast using Russian technology in 2015.

H.M