Putin Underlines Unity, Settlement, Reconstruction as Priorities in Syria

Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Reuters)
Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Reuters)
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Putin Underlines Unity, Settlement, Reconstruction as Priorities in Syria

Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Reuters)
Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Reuters)

Russian President Vladimir Putin stressed on Saturday that his country will continue in helping Syria preserve its sovereignty, while pushing for the adoption of a political settlement to end the conflict.

He voiced his priorities for the war-torn country during a cable he sent to regime leader Bashar Assad on the occasion of the holidays.

The Kremlin had published on its official website a cable Putin had sent to several former Soviet state leaders, as well as the leaders of various world countries.

In his message to Assad, the Russian leader said that Moscow will also exert efforts to reconstruct Syria and rebuild its economy.

Russia became involved in the Syrian conflict in September 2015, when it began an aerial campaign in support of Assad's regime. Putin ordered a partial withdrawal of the Russian army from Syria earlier this month.

Russia does retain a military presence in Syria, however, through its naval base at Tartus, whose expansion Moscow agreed earlier this month, as well as Hmeimim, where Russian singers performed a New Year variety show Saturday.

Moscow is hoping to hold in Sochi in January a meeting for various Syrian factions to pave the way for a political settlement. Opposition groups have however rejected the meeting.

They said that the congress wan an attempt to "circumvent" the UN-led peace process.



UN Human Rights Office: 798 People Killed while Receiving Aid in Gaza

Palestinians carry containers for water at a camp for the displaced in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, July 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians carry containers for water at a camp for the displaced in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, July 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
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UN Human Rights Office: 798 People Killed while Receiving Aid in Gaza

Palestinians carry containers for water at a camp for the displaced in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, July 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians carry containers for water at a camp for the displaced in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, July 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

The UN human rights office said on Friday that it had recorded at least 798 killings both at aid points run by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and near humanitarian convoys run by other relief groups, including the UN.

The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to get supplies into Gaza, largely bypassing a UN-led system that Israel says had let militants divert aid.

The United Nations has called the plan "inherently unsafe" and a violation of humanitarian impartiality rules.

"Up until the seventh of July, we've recorded now 798 killings, including 615 in the vicinity of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites, and 183 presumably on the route of aid convoys," OHCHR spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva, according to Reuters.

The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May and has repeatedly denied that incidents had occurred at its sites.