Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was due to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow Tuesday to discuss turmoil in the Middle East, with Russian weapons sales to Syria also likely to be high on the agenda, AFP reports.Ahead of the meeting, an unnamed Kremlin official told Interfax the main item on the agenda was “a just and lasting settlement of the crisis situation in the Middle East”.

“Particular attention will be given to the situation in the Palestinian territories, around Lebanon and in Iraq,” the official said Tuesday.

The Kommersant newspaper said that Moscow wanted to restore something of its Soviet-era influence in the Middle East and that Putin would seek the Syrian leader’s support for a long-standing bid to hold a Middle East conference in Moscow.

The conference could bring together “opposing sides —- Lebanon, Syria and possibly Iran and the Palestinian authority and Israel,” said the influential broadsheet.

Russia is a member of the so-called Middle East diplomatic quartet together with the European Union, the United Nations and the United States.

Although it is relatively close to Israel, Moscow was at the forefront of objections to Israel’s offensive against Lebanon’s pro-Syrian Hezbollah in July-August.

Kommersant noted that al-Assad’s visit comes immediately after a visit to Moscow by Lebanon’s pro-Western Prime Minister Fuad Siniora, whose government faces a revolt by a Syrian-backed opposition.

Moscow aims to enable “an exchange between Beirut and Damascus” by which Syria would refrain from trying to bring down the Siniora government and Lebanon would stop accusing Syria of involvement in the murder last year of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri, Kommersant said.

Also likely to feature in the talks are calls for Syria and Iran to be consulted on efforts to curb the burgeoning violence in Iraq, despite US opposition.

In an interview Monday with the official Rossiiskaya Gazeta newspaper, Syrian Vice President Faruq al-Shara talked of an important role for Russia and hinted that Syria would like to buy more Russian weapons systems —- a trade that has angered Israel and raised eyebrows in Washington.

Kommersant said Damascus is considering buying MiG-29SMT fighter jets from Russia as well as possibly Amur-1650 submarines, Yak-130 planes and additional Pantsir-C1 air defense systems.

Independent defense analyst Pavel Felgenhauer said that further Russian weapons supplies to Syria would be handled on more strictly commercial terms than in the Soviet era and that Damascus would have difficulty raising the sums involved unless it had outside backing, possibly from Iran.

Kommersant said Russia was looking at possibly expanding a supply base in the Syrian port of Tartus used by the Russian navy and previously the Soviet navy, with a view to turning it into a fully-fledged base and foothold in the Mediterranean for Russia’s navy.

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