President Vladimir Putin met Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad in the Kremlin, the Russian president's press service said on Thursday.

Putin told al-Assad he was concerned that tensions were rising in the Middle East, the Kremlin announced, amid the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza.

'I am very interested in your opinion on how the situation in the region as a whole is developing,' Putin told Assad, as cited by Reuters news agency.

This also applies directly to Syria.' As he expressed that the situation in the region “tends to worsen,” Putin said there are a lot of promising directions with regards to the trade and economic ties between Russia and Syria.

The Kremlin said the meeting took place on Wednesday.

'Considering all the events that are taking place in the world as a whole and in the Eurasian region today, our meeting today seems very important to discuss all the details of the development of these events, to discuss possible prospects and scenarios,' Assad told Putin through a Russian translator.