Russia’s President Vladimir Putin stated that the United States needs his forces to withdraw from Syrian territory and to stop stealing the country’s resources.
This statement came during a press conference that brought together Putin, his Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raisi and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Tehran on Tuesday.
“We have common positions on the Euphrates River regarding the need for the US forces to withdraw from this territory, and that they must stop looting the Syrian state and its people, by illegally extracting oil,” the Russian president said.
Putin stressed Moscow’s adherence to the necessity for returning east of the Euphrates River to the legitimate government of Syria.
The Russian president visited Iran on Tuesday in a show of deepening ties between the two nations, united in their isolation from the West.
Later in the evening, he held talks with both Raisi and Erdogan, part of his first trip outside the former Soviet Union since the start of the Ukraine war in February.
In his meeting with Raisi, Putin extolled growing trade ties with Iran, sending a message to his people that while Western companies have left the country in droves, Moscow still has reliable friends. “We can boast of record figures in terms of trade growth,” Putin said.