Putin to meet Ayatollah Khamenei during Iran visit

“The Syrian president has gained in a general election the majority of the votes [cast] by the Syrian people with “different political, religious and ethnic” views, and the U.S. has no right to overlook this vote and the choice of the Syrian people”, he said.

Putin’s visit – his first since 2007 – also reflects how the nuclear deal reached in July with the Obama administration has untied Russia’s hands to develop its relations with Tehran more publicly.

The trip coincides with a major summit in Iran’s capital of gas exporting countries, but Putin’s meeting with Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is likely to dominate.

Putin also addressed a natural gas export summit in Tehran – both Russian Federation and Iran are large gas exporters.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has confirmed Moscow’s readiness to provide a $5 billion loan for the implementation of priority projects in Iran.

Ad there is this: “To abandon support for Ukraine because of the situation in Syria would be a strategic error on the part of the West”, said Ukraine’s ambassador-at-large Dmytro Kuleba.

The visit comes as Russian Federation nears a third month of military engagement in the Syrian conflict.

The Turkmen leader voiced uneasiness about Russian Federation using the Caspian Sea for some of the strikes on Syria, but Putin said using the Caspian would continue “for as long as we see necessary to punish the culprits” behind the plane attack.

Moscow said the recent nuclear deal between Iran and the P5+1 group – Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States plus Germany – would allow the deal to be completed.

The news agency Interfax cited a Kremlin spokesperson on Monday as saying that Putin and Iran’s Khamenei agreed political decisions should not be imposed on Syria from outside. Until just recently the two countries had disagreements over the issue.

Photos of the meeting between the pair were posted on Khamenei’s official website on Monday afternoon.

Those who support opposition fighters in Syria, including Saudi Arabia, have pushed for a time frame for Assad’s ouster in any type of negotiated settlement. As the two countries’ interests and long-term ambitions in a future Syria might compete, the current marriage of convenience between Moscow and Tehran, aimed at countering the rebel front in the crisis, could weaken or collapse once the fighting subsides. Russia’s military efforts in Syria could be said to have a three pronged agenda: to weaken North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, to prop-up Assad, and to prevent the Islamic State from migrating into Russian Federation via the Caucasus.