Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, in a telephone call with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Friday, praised the Russian invasion of Ukraine, saying it was a “correction of history”. Damascus is a staunch ally of Moscow which intervened in the Syrian civil war in 2015 by launching air strikes to support the Assad regime’s struggling forces. Assad spoke to Putin a day after Russian forces invaded Ukraine on the orders of the Russian president, drawing strong international condemnation. “President Assad stressed that what is happening today is a correction of history and a restoration of …