By Dmitry Solovyov, Tom Perry and Suleiman Al-Khalidi MOSCOW/BEIRUT/GENEVA (Reuters) - Russian warplanes flew home from Syria on Tuesday as Moscow started to withdraw forces that have tipped the war President Bashar al-Assad's way, and the U.N. envoy said he hoped the move would help peace talks in Geneva. As the first aircraft touched down in Russia, U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura called President Vladimir Putin's surprise move a "significant development" toward resolving a crisis which this week passes its fifth anniversary. While Assad's opponents hope Putin's announcement on Monday that most Russian forces would be withdrawn signaled a shift in his support, its full significance is not yet clear: Russia is keeping an air base and an undeclared number of forces in Syria.
More...
March 15th, 2016
--
