Trump-Putin Call: What To Expect Following Russian, Syrian Presidents Meeting

President Donald Trump is scheduled to receive a phone call from Russia President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, less than 24 hours after Putin wrapped up a meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad on Monday.

The news of the phone call was revealed by Russian media outlets and not the White House, an anomaly that frustrated quite a few reporters. Information regarding the nature of the phone call was limited as the Russian media only conveyed that Putin is expected to discuss his meeting with Assad and post-conflict resolutions in Syria with Trump.

According to the Kremlin, Assad received a warm welcome from Putin at his Black Sea residence in Sochi, Russia. Putin also introduced his Syrian counterpart to the leadership of the defense ministry and the general staff of the armed forces of the Russian Federation, who were there to attend a series of meetings on military construction and the Russian State Arms Program.

“First, I would like to congratulate you on the results that Syria is trying to achieve against the terrorist groups, to congratulate you on the fact that the Syrian people are going through very difficult trials and are gradually approaching the final, inevitable defeat of the terrorists,” Putin said in his opening greetings to Assad.

Putin seemed to be greatly interested in discussing the political fate of Syria, including how Assad was planning to hold the Congress of the peoples of Syria, assessment of the current state of affairs and prospects for the resolution of the situation.

In this regard, Assad replied saying his administration will continue to work with Russia in regards to respect for U.N. Charter, the sovereignty and independence of Syria.

Although not many details have been divulged about the upcoming call between Putin and Trump, it will be interesting to find out if the U.S. and Russia manage to find common grounds when it comes to Syria, because their existing policies toward the war-torn nation has been on different planes.

Russia has thrown its support behind Assad’s regime, lending their troops and weapons to fight against the terrorists and other extremist groups that oppose the Syrian president. Trump, on the other hand, has accused Assad of “unspeakable crimes,” using harsh rhetoric to condemn the nations which stood up in support for his crimes.

In this matter, Trump has refrained from directly holding the Kremlin accountable for the crisis, choosing instead to go after other Syrian allies, such as Iran. "Among Iran's most tragic and destabilizing interventions have been in Syria. Bolstered by Iran, Assad has committed unspeakable crimes," he said.

However, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson made no qualms about holding Russia directly accountable for the Syrian crisis. “We rededicate ourselves to holding to account any and all who commit crimes against the innocents anywhere in the world,” Tillerson said in a statement in Lucca, Italy, hours before he was supposed to fly to the Kremlin, the Atlantic reported. Making it aptly clear that Putin had to choose between working with the West or with Assad, he said that the latter "is not going to serve Russia’s interests longer term.”

Trump, however has adopted a more positive approach toward Russia, hoping that Putin will revoke his support for Assad.

Faysal Itani, resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council's Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East, said that Trump might have a good reason for adopting a softer policy toward Russia. "We don't have a choice but to oppose Iran and try to accommodate Russia," Itani said, CNBC reported. "It's the only conceivable way of bringing an end to the war on terms the United States can accept, i.e., without turning over the entire country to Iran. If we are indeed able to divide Russia from Iran, we stand a much better chance of forcing an outcome in Syria that serves our interests."

The U.S. began supporting Syrian rebels in 2013, two years after the Syrian civil war started. It managed to avoid any direct confrontation with Assad till April this year, when the regime reportedly used chemical weapons on its own citizen. The Trump administration directed a missile strike on a Syrian air base as a warning. This prompted both Russia as well as Syria to condemn the U.S. action.

Regardless of their differing policies toward Assad and the situation in Syria, the primary enemy of both the U.S. as well as Russia remains common – the Islamic State group (ISIS) and eradicating the terrorist threats in the Middle East, which could be one of the topics of discussion during Trump and Putin’s phone call.

In addition to calling up Trump, Putin is also scheduled to meet with Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Iran President Hassan Rouhani in Sochi on Wednesday. He is also scheduled to call Middle Eastern leaders including the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.