In a telephone call on Tuesday, Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Saudi Arabia’s King Salman spoke on the latest efforts on achieving peace in Syria.

The phone conversation comes after Syrian President Bashar Assad was asked to visit Russia to get him to agree to potential peace initiatives drafted by Russia, Iran and Turkey as Russia prepares to scale down its military presence in the country’s civil war, the Kremlin said Tuesday.

Assad has only ventured outside his war-ravaged nation twice since the conflict began - both times to 

source: Alarabiya