Two senior Russian officials met new government leaders in Damascus on Tuesday, a first since the fall of the Kremlin's ally, ex-president Bashar al-Assad, in December. Moscow wants to keep its two major military bases in Syria.
Quoted by the Russian press agencies, Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said that he and his delegation had been received for three hours by the new Syrian leader, Ahmad al-Chareh, and his Foreign Minister, Assaad Al-Chibani.
‘The meeting went well overall’, said Mr Bogdanov, who was accompanied, according to the Russian media, by the Russian President's special envoy for Syria, Alexander Lavrentiev, adding that Russia was “ready to contribute to stabilising the situation”.
The discussions ‘focused on key issues, in particular respect for Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity’, the new Syrian administration said in a statement, without specifying who the Russian delegation had met.
‘Russia affirmed its support for the positive changes underway in Syria. The dialogue highlighted Russia's role in rebuilding trust with the Syrian people through concrete measures such as reparations, reconstruction and recovery’, it continued.
According to her, the discussions also covered the establishment of ‘judicial transition mechanisms’ designed to bring ‘justice to the victims of the brutal war waged by the Assad regime’.
‘The restoration of relations must take account of past mistakes, respect the will of the Syrian people and serve their interests’, she warned.
Following a lightning offensive, a rebel coalition dominated by the radical Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), led by Ahmad al-Chareh, overthrew Bashar al-Assad on 8 December, who fled to Russia with his family.
His departure was a setback for Moscow, which, along with Iran, was the main supporter of the former Syrian leader and had been intervening militarily in Syria since 2015.
Since then, the fate of the Tartous naval base and the Hmeimim military airfield - key infrastructure for Russia to maintain its influence in the Middle East, the Mediterranean basin and as far afield as Africa - has been in question.
Mr Bogdanov expressed his hope that ‘Russian interests will not suffer’ and that the situation of the Russian bases ‘will not change’: ‘This issue will require further negotiations’.
According to observers, Moscow could be forced to reorganise its entire presence in the region and withdraw to other bases, such as Libya, where Russian mercenaries have supported Marshal Khalifa Haftar.
The new Syrian leader, Ahmad al-Shareh, nevertheless adopted a rather conciliatory tone at the end of December.
‘There are deep strategic interests between Russia and Syria’, he said in an interview with the Al-Arabiya channel, adding that “all Syrian weapons are of Russian origin and (that) many power stations are run by Russian experts”.
‘We do not want Russia to leave Syria in the way that some people would like’, he added.
In mid-December, Russian President Vladimir Putin had said that the fall of Bashar al-Assad was not ‘a defeat’, declaring that Moscow had achieved its objective by preventing the country from becoming ‘a terrorist enclave’.
Russia has been heavily criticised for its military intervention in Syria since 2015 to save Bashar al-Assad. It took part in the ruthless repression of the rebels, notably by carrying out devastating air strikes.
For its part, Ukraine, which is in armed conflict with Moscow, intends to weigh in against Russia remaining in Syria.
Ukraine broke off diplomatic relations with Damascus in 2022, following Syria's recognition of the annexation of Crimea, a Ukrainian peninsula seized by Moscow in 2014.
Since the flight of Bashar al-Assad, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has promised to help Syria rebuild, and Ukraine, a major agricultural country, has sent its first shipment of food aid: 500 tonnes of wheat flour.
With AFP.
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