A Russian Su-24 strike aircraft in the sky over the Khmeimim airbase in Syria. Photo: Dmitriy Vinogradov / RIA Novosti
Russian forces remain deployed in their bases in Syria as Moscow is holding talks with the country’s interim government, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya told reporters on April 19.
“Our servicemen stay where they were. We are talking to the current Syrian government,” he said to a question about the Russian military presence in the Arab country.
Russian forces are mainly deployed at two large facilities along the Syrian coast, the Tartus naval base and Khmeimim air base.
In addition, Russian forces are present at Qamishli airport in the northeast of the country, but that region is controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.
Tensions have been mounting on the coast since government forces unleashed a deadly crackdown against the Alawite religious minority, which makes up most of the region’s population, last month. More than 1,600 civilians, mainly Alawites, were killed and tens of thousands others were displaced, with nearly 10,000 sheltering refuge at Khmeimim.
Russian air defenses have shot down multiple drones over the two bases on the coast since the crackdown. However, no friction with government forces has been reported.
Earlier this week, Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani told Russian President Vladimir Putin that Syrian interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa sees partnership with Moscow as being in the best interests of his people.
“A few days ago, Syrian President [Ahmed] al-Sharaa was in Qatar, and we held extensive talks with him. We talked about the strategically important ties between Russia and Syria, which go way back. He is committed to continuing this cooperation, building ties based on mutual respect and respect for the interests of the two peoples,” the Emir told reports during the meeting with Putin on April 17.
Al Thani also stressed that Qatar, a key backer of al-Sharaa, remains committed to the independence and territorial integrity of Syria.
“Syria is undoubtedly going through a very difficult period, and, of course, it is necessary to support the aspirations of the new Syrian authorities to ensure territorial integrity and sovereignty of this country,” he said.
From his side, Putin said that the development of the situation in Syria was of serious importance for Russia, noting that there were many problems there.
“We would like to do everything to ensure that Syria, firstly, remains a sovereign, independent and territorially integral state, and we would like to discuss with you the possibility of providing assistance to the Syrian people, including humanitarian assistance,” Putin told the Emir. “There are many problems there: political, security, and purely economic.”
While Russia and the interim government are yet to reach an agreement on the future of the bases in Tartus and Khmeimim, the two sides maintain high levels of communications.
Recent reports revealed that Russia was in talks with the interim government to launch joint patrols in the vicinity of its bases to ensure security and maintain stability in the coast.
Some experts were quick to deem the fall of the regime of former president Bashar al-Assad last December on the hands of Islamist forces that formed the interim government as the end of Russian influence in Syria. However, Moscow continues to be one of the key players in the country. The interim government and its allies clearly recognize this. It is still too early however to speculate how the future relations between Damascus and Moscow will look like.
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i just hope that a new bush comes along and crushes syria and russia like the previous bush crushed iraq and afghanistan.
pray to your god, i’ll pray to my devil maybe ursula von der leyen does it.
is the biggest crooked swindler donald trump really planning to fix the iraqi baath? ask the devil and then write to me in the comment.
hehe, americans and euro too chicken to enter a war against an equally matched military. can only use proxies of non euro nation to fight their wars at a distance. us and eu cowards bomb from the sky at a safe distance and only take on countries weaker than them.
after my transgender surgery i only operate in gay burgerland bars w ramses will and pieceslickingcock
russia did a trans operation and made deal with the criminal muslim brotherhood.
assad didnt confront israel and didnt provide weapons such as ballistic missile and air defense to hezbollah, therefore it was impossible for russia and iran to support assad at the eyes of the arab/muslim world
hafes al assad was president of syria. jolani al isis and the ass ad are trump’s trannies prostitutes.
prostitutes putin and assad betrayed syria, the captain of costa concordia went to prison for similar betrayal…
trump and his assistant tulsi want to fix the iraqi baath. i wonder if any success in fixing the iraqi baath would bring success to israel and us?
putler and the ass ad are trannies prostitutes.
wrong, those two were born females, then switched genders and deceived their people into thinking they were males.
i’m about to throw up.
i vomit just thinking about traitors putin and assad, only brandon can match them. but he was at least human enough to let journalists and documentary filmmakers show sami sadat to the public.
wtf is russia even talking to that terrorist julani the zio puppet?
you’re being lied to, everything that is happening now is happening according to the deal and the plan between israel, turkey, russia and us, some minor problems here and there are not important,
possibly or maybe trying to keep the peace , i feel a quagmire has ensured between the western world and east… maybe peace can eventually prosper
like yugoslavia at 1995 ante gotovina is biba.
i hope, i just hope, that bibi will really repeat gotovina…
what deal?
russia is zio prostitute and traidores bitch.
and in the end, it will also betray iran.
ak chcú byť rusi prítomní v sýrii tak by mali zapracovať na tom aby istá časť z rozvrátenej sýrie ostala pod ich kontrolou. stačilo by na to predniesť v br osn deklaráciu, že ochraňujú v sýrii avalítov pred genocídou zo strany teroristických skupín v sýrii. kresťanov v sýrii je treba chrániť!!! svetu mier!!!
why do you think the syrian druze called for help from the israeli druze employed in the idf and not the russians? they knew full well that the russians were just corrupt bastards and would be left to isis, which had taken over the leadership of this fallen country. but a druze who is employed in the idf as a general went to minister katz and asked him to protect the druze. the alawites, as allies of iran and russia, were massacred by hts, some sources say 50,000 dead alawites.
that clip of a druze dressed as an idf general and katz is a regular commercial. why do i know this? because ministers command military commanders, not commanders command ministers and presidents.
russia obeying their luciferian zionist masters
exactly, except that russia did nothing when hts killed about 50,000 alawites and sold their daughters. the israeli druze, however, defended the villages of the syrian druze.
if netanyahu hadn’t wanted to enlarge israel, all the druze would be dead by now. then russia wonders why pashinyan prefers ursula to vladimir.
half of russia is khazar, and the khazars are turks, that’s why erdoğan can terrorize russia as much as he wants, they even killed minister andrei karlov and nikome ništa.
go after both salafism and eurocentrism putin,it fits right for u. at least take the honorable charge or be what always you’ve been…
those terrorist that control syria will push the russian out of the country…this is the fail of mr putin in syria.
talks have been going on a long time now. seems the syrian regime want russ out but russia is begging to stay in syria to not lose face. that’s the reality.
the greater israel project has created nothing but instability in syria , to the woe of humanity . the syrian people most likely support a russian foot print over the current de-facto cia / israeli / mafia rule ?