Speaking at UN, Putin calls on international community to support Assad in Syria

Addressing the UN General Assembly today in New York, Russian President Vladimir Putin called on the international community to give its support to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Putin argued that the Assad regime is the lawful government of Syria and the only force, besides the Kurds, that is capable of real resistance to ISIL. Accordingly, Putin says, United Nations members should provide comprehensive aid to the Assad regime, and include his forces in an international coalition against terrorists in Syria.

Speaking about the war in Ukraine, Putin called on all parties to observe the latest Minsk agreement, emphasizing that the conflict has no military solution.

• Since 2011, a bloody civil war in Syria has claimed hundreds of thousand of lives. The conflict began with protests against the Assad regime, after which the government used force against protesters, allegedly committing several war crimes. Since this time, Western states have provided aid to various "moderate" opposition groups in the fight against Assad's forces. ISIL, against whom a US-led coalition is also fighting, has been active and controlled territory in Syria since 2014.