Syria’s Assad meets Khamenei

AMMAN—Syrian President Bashar al Assad made his first public visit to his closest regional ally Iran since the start of the Syrian conflict eight years ago, meeting Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran yesterday, Syrian state television reported.

It showed footage of Assad meeting Khamenei and said the two leaders agreed “to continue cooperation at all levels for the interests of the two friendly nations”.

Meanwhile, when North Korean leader Kim Jong Un arrives in Hanoi on Tuesday for his summit with US President Donald Trump later this week, he will be the first leader of the isolated country to visit Vietnam since his grandfather, Kim Il Sung, visited in 1964.

Vietnam’s model of reform is being widely touted as the economic path for impoverished North Korea to follow as the United States leads efforts to curb Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programme and bring it back to the international fold.

But Vietnam’s transformation has required political change and levels of individual freedoms that would require major reforms for the Kim family, which is afforded godlike status by state propaganda.

In imagery that could have powerful propaganda value at home, Kim Jong Un will mimic aspects of his grandfather’s trip to Vietnam by travelling to some of the same locations visited by the elder Kim, two sources with direct knowledge of security and logistics planning told reporters.

— Reuters.