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SOCHI: Russian President Vladimir Putin met Saudi Arabia’s defence minister on Sunday, in Moscow’s biggest attempt so far to reach out to enemies of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad since Russia joined the conflict with air strikes.
Putin met Sheikh Mohammed bin Salman, a son of the Saudi king, on the sidelines of a Formula One race on Sunday, nearly two weeks since Moscow began bombing enemies of Assad, including rebel groups that are supported by Riyadh.
Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir, appearing alongside Russia’s Sergei Lavrov, said Riyadh had concerns about Russia’s policy.
Lavrov said Moscow understood Saudi concerns and the two countries shared the aim of preventing the establishment of a terrorist caliphate in Syria.
Published in Dawn, October 12th, 2015
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Comments (25) Closed
Oct 12, 2015 09:52am
Someone is not honest here.
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Oct 12, 2015 10:26am
Putin meets Saudi defense minister amid differences over Syria... set aside the game of throne... think of humanity all your differences would be over...People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader leads, and the boss drives.... i just wonder who is the boss and who leads who....
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Oct 12, 2015 10:35am
The photograph shows a very studied silence. They agreed to disagree. In life compromise is hard but that is the way forward. In this case it is better for Saudi's to compromise. Assad has proved that he has what it takes to stay in power, good or bad. The Saudi's cannot push him out, he has the backing of the Iran, Russians, and many regional players. Saudi's want there clout in the area and so do others, the only way is to know that no one wins in this kind of war.
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Oct 12, 2015 11:11am
I looks that Saudi authorities realized that they can not make it with Russian involvement in the region. Therefore they want a secure exit with the assurance from the Russia that Syria and Iran would not react against them after Saudi's withdrawal.
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Oct 12, 2015 11:18am
@khanm: What did I just read!? Lol
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Oct 12, 2015 11:35am
@khanm Both are Leader plus Boss on respective country.
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Oct 12, 2015 11:36am
I am sure they did not talk about Syria.
They must have talked about how to raise oil prices. Both of them are victim of low oil prices.
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Oct 12, 2015 11:46am
@CC he's right you know.
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Oct 12, 2015 11:48am
@CC I could not make sense of it either.
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Oct 12, 2015 11:58am
Set results aside, happy to see Russia coming back and killing US euphoria of being the sole super power to settle issues as per her own willing.
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Oct 12, 2015 01:07pm
These two men got too much power between them.Situation in Middl-east and europe depends upon ,god save the world.
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Oct 12, 2015 01:13pm
Putin using the world stage to revive ' Russian stature ' .....and up to now hes doing quite well.
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Oct 12, 2015 02:13pm
Putin has come up as a true leader. Bravo ! from the day 1, Russia has opposed USA-West geopolitical tactics in middle east and indo-pak region.
We all have seen the disastrous outcomes in Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Yemen, and now Syria. ISIS was deliberately given enough time to spread like cancer and destroy sovereign countries and their way of life in the name of so called Sharia.
Russia is rightfully doing the surgical actions to wipe out this menace and offcourse this hurts a lot the other side of global politics who want nothing but war and instability to nurture their own gains.
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Oct 12, 2015 03:19pm
it should have Saudi been Saudi whatever pays a visit to Russia to discuss matter of great concern for the Al Saud
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Oct 12, 2015 03:36pm
They dont look very comfortable in the picture.
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Oct 12, 2015 04:19pm
The body language of the two in the photographs above tells it all. There is no need for any other explanation on what was discussed.
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Oct 12, 2015 04:30pm
Where are their translators?
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Oct 12, 2015 04:43pm
Asad or no Asad the war will go on because this is war of faith who you like most and which side you are on.
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Oct 12, 2015 04:49pm
Russia is doing what muslim world should have been doing, countering 'Terrorist Calliphate' ...
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Oct 12, 2015 05:03pm
First problem of Middle East issue relates to eliminating of ISIL which is quite dangerous for the region as well as for Saudi Arabia and Turkey . These countries should support Russian air attacks and operation in Syria for making them secure also . The other problem and differences can be resolved on later stage .
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Oct 12, 2015 06:06pm
Saudi's first started dialogue with Israel and now with the Russians. Saudi's are neither sympathetic to the Palestinians nor an ally of the US.
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Oct 12, 2015 06:08pm
Russia is now getting real pace in resolving Syrian conflict. I hope Russian federation could bring peace in Middle east. Contrary to this USA is just having a blame game over Syrian president.
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Oct 12, 2015 06:59pm
@sam A leader is admired, a boss is feared.
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Oct 12, 2015 07:24pm
President meets defence minister........... Itself tells both sides story
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Oct 12, 2015 07:27pm
Saudi Arabia and USA missed its chance. Now its Russia and Iran's turn to counter ISIL.
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