Russia's Putin meets with Syrian foreign minister

Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said on Wednesday that Putin and Muallem held talks on expanding "bilateral relations" in Russia's Black Sea resort of Sochi, providing no further details.
 
Earlier in the day, media outlets quoted a senior Syrian official as saying that "President Putin will receive the delegation headed by Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem, and the meeting will center on the re-launch of negotiations. The fact that Putin is receiving the delegation immediately shows the important [sic] he's putting on this visit, because meetings in Moscow are usually held with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov."
 
The Syrian delegation is set to stay in Moscow for two days to discuss a series of issues, including talks on weapons supply from Moscow to Syria.
 
"We have told Russia that we want quality weapons," Muallem told a Lebanese newspaper in an interview.
 
Reports say Muallem is also due to meet his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov.
 
Muallem's visit to Russia, an important ally of President Bashar Assad in the Syrian conflict, comes as Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov on November 24, slammed the US-led so-called coalition against ISIL in Syria as "inconsistent with international law and standard counterterrorism practices," and emphasized that Syria and Iraq should be empowered to tackle terrorism.
 
The ISIL militants have seized large swathes of land in Iraq and Syria, terrorizing and killing people of all communities, including Shias, Sunnis, Kurds and Christians, in the areas they are controlling
 
Syria has been grappling with a deadly crisis since March 2011. The violence fueled by Takfiri groups has so far claimed the lives of over 200,000 people, according to reports.