Qatari emir offers encouragement to Putin on prospects for Syria ties

By Vladimir Soldatkin

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani told Russian President Vladimir Putin at talks in the Kremlin on Thursday that Syria's new leader was keen to build ties with Moscow.

The assurance from Sheikh Tamim comes as Putin attempts to retain Russia's use of two military bases in Syria and avoid a serious blow to its strategic influence in the region, after the fall of its ally Bashar al-Assad in December. Assad was toppled by rebels led by Ahmed al-Sharaa, who has replaced him as president.

"As for Syria, a few days ago President al-Sharaa was in Qatar, and we spoke with him about the historical and strategic relationship between Syria and Russia. He is keen on building a relationship between the two countries based on mutual respect," the emir told Putin at their meeting.

Putin said the development of the situation in Syria, which has been rocked by sectarian violence in recent weeks, was of serious importance.

"We would like to do everything to ensure that Syria, firstly, remains a sovereign, independent and territorially integral state, and we would like to discuss with you the possibility of providing assistance to the Syrian people, including humanitarian assistance," he told the emir.

"There are many problems there: political, security, and purely economic."

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia was in dialogue with all regional players in the Middle East about its ties with Syria.

The two leaders also discussed the situation in Gaza, where Qatar played a key role in brokering a January deal between Israel and Hamas for a three-phase ceasefire.

Israel restarted its offensive in the enclave in March, and talks to try to restore the ceasefire have so far failed to achieve a breakthrough.

"Qatar, in its role as a mediator, will strive to bridge differing perspectives in an effort to reach an agreement to end the suffering of the Palestinian people," Sheikh Tamim said.

Putin told the emir: "We know that Qatar is making very serious efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Unfortunately, the initiatives put forward, including by you, have not been implemented - peaceful people continue to die in Palestine, which is an absolute tragedy of today."

Interfax quoted Peskov as saying there was no substantive discussion of the war in Ukraine but Putin expressed thanks for Qatar's involvement in arranging the return of children from both countries who were separated from their parents during the war.

The two leaders also signed an agreement under which each country will pay an extra 1 billion euros ($1.14 billion) into a joint investment fund.

Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, told reporters that Qatar was a major investor in Russian infrastructure, and Russian companies were interested in entering the Middle East market with Qatari partners.

(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin in Moscow and Jana Choukeir and Nayera Abdallah in Dubai; writing by Mark Trevelyan; Editing by David Holmes and Philippa Fletcher)