MOSCOW -- Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday defended his air and cruise-missile strikes on terror targets in Syria as two Saudi Arabian officials softened their government's position on the fate of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Putin said Moscow's objective is to stabilize the Syrian government and create conditions for a political compromise.
"When a division of international terrorists stands near the capital, then there is probably little desire for the Syrian government to negotiate, most likely feeling itself under siege in its own capital," he said in an interview broadcast Sunday on Russian state television.
Putin discussed the Syria campaign Sunday with Saudi Arabian Defense Minister Mohammed Bin Salman, who signaled a willingness to let Assad remain in power longer, while the foreign ministers of both nations met to consider the situation in Syria.
Putin's bombing campaign to support his ally Assad took the U.S. and NATO by surprise and overshadowed a flurry of diplomatic discussions over how to tackle the conflict.
Now Russia is leading the diplomatic charge, with Putin meeting with Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Bin Salman, who were in Sochi in southern Russia, site of a Formula 1 auto race. Putin again called for a political resolution emanating from Assad's government.
Critics of Russia's intervention have argued that strengthening the Syrian government will only make compromise more difficult. On Sunday, the main Western-backed opposition group said the strikes would undermine any efforts to reach a settlement.
The Syrian National Coalition also said it would boycott talks suggested by United Nations envoy Staffan de Mistura, saying any political process must be based on "ending the Russian aggression" and reviving a road map adopted in 2012.
Later in the day, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met with his Saudi counterpart, Adel Al-Jubeir, who said through a translator that Assad must depart after a political transition. Previously, the kingdom's position was that Assad's departure was a precondition to any settlement.
"This transitional government must develop principles for the implementation of reforms, develop a constitution, and of course, as a result that will lead to the resignation of Bashar Assad," Al-Jubeir said.
In a Sept. 30 interview in the Saudi-owned al-Hayat newspaper, Al-Jubeir said discussions were focused on "Assad's fate during the transitional period, whether he will leave power at its outset or stays in Syria without any authority or privileges."
Russian strikes
President Barack Obama's administration last week abandoned its attempt to build and train a rebel force in Syria to take on the Islamic State extremist group. The U.S. will instead focus on equipping selected leaders and providing air support to their units, including Arab and Kurdish groups in Syria.
Putin said the Russian air campaign was already more effective than discontinued U.S. efforts to support some militant groups.
"It would have been better to give us $500 million," Putin said of the aborted U.S. program to fund the Free Syrian Army. "At least we would have used it more effectively from the point of view of fighting international terrorism."
In the Russian TV broadcast, Putin said Russia's involvement was legal and reasonable because it followed a Syrian request for assistance. He questioned whether the U.S. had lived up to either of those standards.
"The simplest solution for them would be to join us and, in that way, legalize their actions on Syrian territory," Putin said of the U.S.
While the U.S. and Russia say they agree on a need to counter the Islamic State, U.S. officials say that most Russian strikes have targeted other Assad opponents, including some supported by the U.S. and its allies.
Putin reiterated that Russia will not send ground troops to Syria and said he does not seek to stoke religious tensions in the Middle East. Russian strikes, which have included missiles launched from the Caspian Sea, are intended to stabilize the legitimate authorities, he said.
Fighting Sunday took place on multiple fronts in the northern part of the central Hama province and the nearby rebel-held Idlib province. A Syrian military official said troops seized the northern Hama village of Tak Sukayk. He spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
It was the second village in the area captured by the government since it launched a ground offensive made possible by Russian airstrikes that began Sept. 30.
In an audio recording, a Saudi militant cleric based in Syria urged fighters to unite, mobilize and attack Syrian forces in different provinces in order to avert "consecutive collapses."
Abdullah al-Muhaysini, who is linked to al-Qaida's affiliate in Syria, the Nusra Front, said the Russians aim to distract the insurgents on different fronts ahead of a surprise attack.
"We have to turn that equation around before the infidels seize the initiative," al-Muhaysini said in the recording, which was first shared by the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
"If there is no vicious counterattack to penetrate the front defensive lines of the regime, the future will be frightening."
Human Rights Watch said Sunday that an advanced type of Russian-made cluster munition was used in an airstrike near the Syrian city of Aleppo on Oct. 4.
Using the weapon "raises grave concerns that Russia is either using cluster munitions in Syria or providing the Syrian air force with new types of cluster munitions to use," the group said in a statement.
Human Rights Watch said photographs and videos also suggest the "renewed use of air-dropped cluster munitions as well as ground-fired Russian-made cluster munition rockets as part of the joint Russian-Syrian offensive in northern Syria."
Russia is a major arms supplier to Syria. Neither country has banned cluster munitions, which are considered imprecise weapons that spread ordnance over a wide area and pose a long-term danger to civilians because of the unexploded bomblets they leave behind.
There was no immediate comment from Russia's Defense Ministry.
Meanwhile, Iran held a funeral Sunday for Gen. Hossein Hamedani, a senior Revolutionary Guard commander who was killed by the Islamic State last week near Aleppo, according to a state TV report.
Hamedani was a specialist in asymmetrical and irregular warfare and reportedly led the Revolutionary Guard's Syria strategy.
He was the second senior Revolutionary Guard commander killed in Syria since the beginning of the year. In January, Brig. Gen. Mohammad Ali Allahdadi was killed by an Israeli airstrike.
Iran is one of Assad's main allies and has provided his government with military and political backing for years. Tehran admits that Revolutionary Guard officers are on the ground in Syria in an advisory role, but it denies the presence of any combat troops in the country.
Information for this article was contributed by Jake Rudnitsky, Stepan Kravchenko and Alaa Shahine of Bloomberg News; and by Sarah El Deeb, Lynn Berry and Albert Aji of The Associated Press.
A Section on 10/12/2015