„To my question about how military issues were going, this is what Assad said: ‚This year the active phase of military action in Syria will be ended. After that we will have to shift to what we have been doing all the time – fighting terrorists‘,“ state-run Itar-Tass quoted Stepashin as saying.

Stepashin said they had also discussed economic cooperation between Syria and Russia, Itar-Tass reported.