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Conflict in Syria

Russian president, Hungarian PM discuss tense situation in Middle East — Kremlin

Vladimir Putin and Viktor Orban held a telephone conversation in connection with the recent events in Syria

MOSCOW, December 11. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban discussed the tense situation in the Middle East in light of the recent events in Syria during a telephone conversation, the Kremlin press service reported.

"The sides discussed the tense situation in the Middle East in connection with the recent events in Syria," the statement said.

On November 27, members of armed opposition groups launched a large-scale offensive against government forces' positions in Aleppo and Idlib Governorates. By the evening of December 7, opponents of Syrian President Bashar Assad had captured several major cities: Aleppo, Hama, Deir ez-Zor, Deraa, and Homs. They entered Damascus on December 8, after which Syrian army units withdrew from the city. According to a statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry, Assad resigned as president of Syria and fled the country, instructing for the peaceful transfer of power. A Kremlin source told TASS that Assad and his family members had arrived in Moscow and that Russia had granted them asylum on humanitarian grounds.

Putin last spoke to Orban in July, when the Hungarian prime minister visited Moscow. Orban is the second European leader to hold a telephone conversation with Putin in two months: in mid-November, the Russian president spoke over phone with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Both calls took place at the initiative of Budapest and Berlin, accordingly.

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Foreign policy Vladimir Putin Syrian conflict

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