PHOTO: Russian President Vladimir Putin at a meeting in Sochi on Thursday (Alexander Zemlianichenko/AFP)

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UPDATE 1710 GMT: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said that today’s meeting in Vienna with US, Turkish, and Saudi counterparts did not discuss President Assad’s resignation.

Lavrov said the other countries were too much preoccupied with “the personality of the Syrian president, but we confirmed our stance”:

If we seek a regime change and get particularly fixed on the figure of a concrete political leader, we already had that in Iraq and Libya. We know what the end was. Regretfully, the whole thing has not ended yet because those countries are still in deep crisis.

UPDATE 1310 GMT: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov claims that Moscow and Jordan agreed to create a coordination center in Amman to share information on counter-terrorism operations.

Amman already hosts an operations center for officials from Jordan, the US, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and European countries.

Speaking at a meeting with Jordanian counterpart Nasser Judeh in Vienna, Lavrov said Jordan will “play a positive part in finding a political solution to the Syrian conflict through negotiations between Damascus and opposition forces”.

UPDATE 1230 GMT: Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has pulled back President Putin’s statement that Bashar al-Assad could have a dialogue with an acceptable opposition:

Regrettably, there is no central force in sight worthy of cooperation. That’s the root cause of the problem.

From the very beginning of the operation in Syria President Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials have expressed the readiness to interact with the so-called moderate opposition. At the same time it had to be stated that attempts to identify the so-called moderate opposition remained unsuccessful all the way.

The spokesman drove home the point:

No moderate forces can be spotted in the patchy mass of terrorist and extremist organizations that pose a threat to Syria’s territorial and political integrity.

Regrettably, neither the US nor European partners, nor somebody else has been able to help us with this identification. Other countries are unable to point to some moderate forces capable of taking care of a settlement in Syria. Regrettably, there have been no tangible results.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Ahead of an important meeting with the US, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia over Syria’s crisis, Russian President Vladimir Putin applied more pressure on Washington and its partners on Thursday.

Pursing Russia’s diplomatic offensive — bolstered by more than three weeks of bombing, mainly of Syrian rebels — to keep President Assad in power in the short-term, Putin combined carrot and stick in a series of declarations at a meeting in the resort town of Sochi.

He accused other countries of supporting “terrorists”, the rebels who are trying to overthrow Assad:

It’s always difficult to play a double game: declaring a fight against terrorists while simultaneously trying to use some of them to arrange the pieces on the Middle East chess board in one’s own interests.

It is impossible to prevail over terrorism if some of the terrorists are being used as a battering ram to overthrow undesirable regimes….

The United States has an aim to get rid of President al-Assad….Our aim is to defeat terrorism; fight terror and help President (Bashar) al-Assad to gain victory over terror.

At the same time, he held out the incentive that Assad could negotiate with an opposition acceptable to Damascus and Moscow: “The Syrian leadership should establish working contacts with those opposition forces that are ready for dialogue. As I understood from my conversation with President Assad the day before yesterday, he is ready for such a dialogue.”

Putin even claimed that Assad would be receptive if Moscow supported an armed opposition in Syria ready to fight the “terrorists”: “We are thinking it over, and trying, if possible, to translate these agreements to practice.”

However, the Russian President effectively made clear that no rebel groups would be allowed in the discussion, “It is wrong to juggle with words and say some terrorists are moderate and others not moderate.”

Russian, US, Turkish, Saudi Foreign Ministers Meet in Vienna

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will meet US, Turkish, and Saudi counterparts in Vienna on Friday, the first high-level discussion since the Russian military intervention in support of a series of ground offensives by the Syrian military.

The talks began on Friday morning with a bilateral session between Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry.

Putin set up the meeting with the sudden, brief visit of President Assad to Moscow on Tuesday night for dinner and talks.

See Syria Developing: Assad Meets Putin in Moscow

Observers differ on whether Russia’s message was one of support for Assad’s stay in power amid talk of a “political transition”, or an indication that Moscow might be prepared to set the Syrian President aside if the regime can be sustained in an agreement.

In August, Saudi Arabia publicly shot down a Russian-Iranian initiative for high-level discussions, insisting that the Syrian President must depart before negotiations can develop. However, since then, Moscow’s military action has pushed the US, Britain, Germany, and Turkey into acceptance of Assad in power for up to six months.

The Saudis have indicated that Assad does not have to depart immediately, although they have not said how long he can hold power.

Jabhat al-Nusra & Islamic State Each Threaten Only Syrian Military Road to Aleppo

The Syrian military’s offensive in Aleppo Province is facing a counter-attack on two fronts, threatening its only supply route to Aleppo city.

The Khanassir-to-Aleppo road (see map) is threatened by the Islamic State to the east and to the south by Jabhat al-Nusra, according to both pro-regime and pro-opposition activists.

Journalist: Russian Airstrikes Kill 17 in Talbiseh in Homs Province

Opposition journalist Hadi al-Abdallah reports that Russian airstrikes on Talbiseh in Homs Province have killed 17 civilians, including five women and eight children, and injured scores.

5th Iranian Revolutionary Guards Commander, 7 Other Fighters Killed

Another Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander has been killed in Syria.

Reza Khavari led the Fatemioun Brigade, made up of Afghan nationals.

A Revolutionary Guards spokesman confirmed that eight Iranian troops were killed in Aleppo Province. The dead included two Revolutionary Guards members — one of them Abdollah Baqeri Niyaraki, a bodyguard for former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — and a member of an airborne brigade.

The Guards denied claims in Iranian media that up to 15 Iranian fighters died.

Khavari is the 5th Iranian commander killed since October 8. Several Iranian troops have also been slain.

Video: Regime Barrel-Bombing of Moadamiya Near Damascus

Claimed footage of a regime helicopter dropping a barrel bomb on opposition-held Moadamiya, southwest of Damascus, on Thursday:

Protest Against Islamic State Brigade in Daraa Province

Residents of a town in Daraa Province in southern Syria have protested against the Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade, which pledges allegiance to the Islamic State.

Local sources said the demonstration began when brigade fighters intervened to break up a wedding and shot at the audience, killing two people and wounding several.

The sources said the residents counter-attacked and declared the town “liberated”.

Rebels control most of Daraa Province, but the Islamic State occupies several villages.

Rebels Launch Hama Offensive, Impose Media Blackout

Rebels have imposed a blackout on news about their offensive towards Hama city, launched on Thursday.

Before the blackout was announced, pro-opposition accounts said the Jaish al-Fateh was advancing “on a wide front” across northern Hama Province, including attacks on the villages of Atshan, Skeik, and Maan. They claimed three regime tanks were quickly destroyed and two captured.

The coalition started the ground attacks under heavy cloud and rain, limiting the ability of Russian warplanes to strike.

Jaish al-Fateh promised last week that it would launch the assault to counter the regime-Russian offensive that began in the area on October 7.