Syrian TV: President Assad met with Russian leader in Moscow, in 1st trip abroad since 2011

FILE - In this Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2015, file photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian President Bashar Assad gestures during an interview with the BBC in Damascus, Syria. Syrian state media says Assad has met his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in Moscow, in the first known trip for the embattled leader since war broke out in his country in 2011. (SANA via AP, File) (The Associated Press)

FILE - In this Monday, Oct. 19, 2015, file photo, Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a State Council meeting at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow. Syrian state media says President Bashar Assad has met with Putin in Moscow, in the first known trip abroad for the embattled leader since war broke out in his country in 2011. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, pool, File) (The Associated Press)

In this photo taken on Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2015, Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, shakes hand with Syrian President Bashar Assad in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia. Assad was in Moscow, in his first known trip abroad since the war broke out in Syria in 2011, to meet his strongest ally Russian leader Vladimir Putin. The two leaders stressed that the military operations in Syria_ in which Moscow is the latest and most powerful addition_ must lead to a political process. (Alexei Druzhinin, RIA-Novosti, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP) (The Associated Press)