Vladimir Putin has sought Donald Trump’s broad endorsement for his plan to bring the Syrian civil war to a close on largely Russian and Iranian terms, after the defeat of Islamic State and the repeated pushbacks of Syrian rebels.

Putin briefed his American counterpart on the phone for more than an hour, as the Russian president prepared to host a summit in the Black Sea resort of Sochi with the leaders of Turkey and Iran – two other powers heavily involved in the conflict in Syria.

The summit, a display of Russia’s restored influence in the Middle East, is expected to discuss Putin’s plans for fresh deconfliction zones and a Syrian national dialogue to draw up a new Syrian constitution that would leave President Bashar al-Assad entrenched and entitled to stand for election again.



Moscow said Putin, in his talks with Trump, conveyed “the message of the necessity to keep the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Syria, and to reach a political settlement based on principals to be worked out in a full-scale negotiation process in Syria”.

Increasingly confident that he has marginalised both pluralist and Islamist groups still holding out against Assad, Putin plans to hold a Syrian national dialogue in early December to which he will invite hundreds of Syrian groups that have reached reconciliation agreements with Assad.

Western diplomats fear Putin has decided in effect to bypass the deadlocked UN Syrian peace process in Geneva, which is due to restart on 28 November, and will instead oversee a parallel peace track.

Western diplomats are urging Putin to recognise that an imposed settlement that leaves dissidents excluded will only lead to further bloodshed, and a European refusal to provide reconstruction funds.

In the run-up to the trilateral summit, Putin hosted Assad in Sochi for four hours of talks on Monday, where they asserted that the military stage of the conflict was coming to an end. The talks were not disclosed until Assad had returned to Damascus.

It was the first time the two men had met since Assad visited Moscow in October 2015 to discuss the surprise Russian military intervention in Syria to protect the Syrian leader from inexorable defeat.

In the four-hour meeting, Putin told Assad, according to the Kremlin: “We’re still a long way off fully defeating terrorism. But as far as concerns our work … on Syrian territory, the military operation is coming to an end.

“Now the most important thing, of course, is to move on to the political questions, and I note with satisfaction your readiness to work with all those who want peace and a solution to the conflict.

Syria’s President Assad meets Russia’s President Vladimir Putin in Sochi, Russia, 20 November. Photograph: Zuma Wire/Rex/Shutterstock

In carefully scripted words, Assad told the Russian leader: “At this stage, especially after we achieved victory over terrorists, it is in our interests to move forward with the political process.”

Although Tuesday’s Putin-Trump call also covered Ukraine, North Korea and Afghanistan, the focus was on Putin setting out the terms of his diplomatic push to end the Syrian civil war.

Putin’s peace plan will leave tens of thousands of Iranian militia inside Syria, and arguably Iran is emerging as the single biggest victor from the conflict.

But Putin is facing problems persuading Turkey, long-term backers of the Syrian opposition, that any settlement will not strengthen Kurdish independence forces in Northern Syria. The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, regards the Syrian Kurds, the key military force in pushing back against Isis in Raqqa, as inextricably linked with Kurdish PKK forces, which Turkey says is operating as a terrorist group inside its borders.

The US has also said it will keep a military presence inside Syria, partly to ensure that the integrity of the UN peace process is maintained.

In a sign that a triumphant Putin is dividing a demoralised opposition, 10 senior figures in the Syrian opposition umbrella group, the High Negotiations Committee, resigned including Riyad Hijab, the former Syrian prime minister. They protested that their negotiating team were being pressured into accepting that any peace deal will leave Assad in office.

The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, welcomed the resignation of Hijab and his allies, saying: “The retreat of radically minded opposition figures from playing the main role will make it possible to unite this motley opposition – internal and external – on a more reasonable, realistic and constructive platform. We will support the efforts made by Saudi Arabia in this respect.”

The new negotiating team was due to be formed in two days of talks in Riyadh due to commence on Wednesday.

The pressure for a revised negotiating team has largely come from Saudi Arabia. Riyadh has backed the HNC since 2015, but appears to have concluded the decisive tilt in the military balance to Assad over the past year means it is no longer realistic to make Assad’s removal a precondition for talks.