Russian President Vladimir Putin received his Syrian counterpart, Bashar al-Assad , in Moscow on Wednesday, in light of the Kremlin's intensification of its efforts to achieve reconciliation between Ankara and Damascus and to confirm its diplomatic weight despite the diplomatic isolation it faces due to its invasion of Ukraine.

These efforts come at a time when diplomatic cards are being widely shuffled in the Middle East with the restoration of diplomatic relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia under the auspices of Beijing.

For the Kremlin, organizing a reconciliation process between Turkey and Syria , whose relations began to deteriorate since 2011, will show Moscow's diplomatic weight despite the isolation it faces from Western countries since its attack on Ukraine.

The meeting of the two leaders began at around 14:00 GMT, according to scenes broadcast on Russian television. A number of ministers participated in this meeting, to be followed by a bilateral meeting between the two presidents.

"We are in constant contact and our relations are developing," Putin said at the beginning of the meeting, welcoming the "important results" achieved by Moscow and Damascus in "the fight against international terrorism."

For his part, al-Assad expressed his support for the military operation led by Moscow in Ukraine, stressing that "this visit will pave the way for a new phase in Syrian-Russian relations at all levels."

However, the reconciliation process between Ankara and Damascus will be one of the main topics to be raised at this meeting, which Moscow seeks to accelerate, especially by organizing a summit with al-Assad and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday that "relations between Turkey and Syria will certainly be affected in one way or another" by the discussions between Putin and Assad.
After he came to power in the early 2000s, Erdogan and Assad established friendly relations, after decades of tension between their two countries.
However, after the start of the war in Syria, which since 2011 has left more than 500,000 dead and millions displaced, Ankara has supported armed groups seeking to overthrow the Syrian regime, which is backed by Moscow and Tehran.
Despite their divergent interests in Syria and Turkey's membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Putin and Erdogan have cooperated extensively in recent years, which explains Moscow's role in trying to achieve Turkish-Syrian reconciliation.

Diplomats from Russia , Turkey, Syria and Iran are scheduled to meet this week in Moscow to prepare for a meeting of their countries' foreign ministers ahead of a possible presidential summit.

At the end of December, the Turkish and Syrian defense ministers met in Moscow with their Russian counterpart, for the first time since 2011.

In recent months, Erdogan has expressed several times his willingness to meet Assad to mend relations. "There can be no rancor in politics," the Turkish president said in November.

However, there are thorny issues that must still be resolved, especially with regard to the Turkish military presence in northern Syria, where Ankara has carried out many attacks since 2016 against jihadist and Kurdish groups.

Nevertheless, there may be a rapprochement due to the earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria last February, killing more than 50,000 people and helping Damascus to emerge somewhat from its diplomatic isolation.

Erdogan and Assad also share animosity toward the Kurdish groups that control northeastern Syria and are supported by the West against the Islamic State.

Damascus strongly condemned the visit made in early March by the US Chief of Staff to northeastern Syria, which is controlled by the Kurdish forces.