Syria: Assad Welcomes New Russian Bases After Putin Meeting

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Facts

• On Thursday, Syrian Pres. Bashar al-Assad reportedly expressed support for any potential Russian bid to establish new military bases and permanently expand Russia's military presence in the country.¹
• During the talks Assad thanked Putin for Russia's assistance to Syria after the recent earthquake and voiced his support for Moscow's war in Ukraine, adding that Damascus recognizes the Ukrainian territories Russia conquered as Russian.¹
• Assad's statement came after he met with Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Wednesday for talks on the humanitarian situation in Syria, bolstering bilateral military and political cooperation and improving relations between Syria and Turkey.²
• Meanwhile, a meeting of the deputy foreign ministers of Russia, Turkey, Iran, and Syria planned for this week in Moscow to address strained Ankara-Damascus relations was reportedly postponed for 'technical reasons.'³
• In 2015, Moscow intervened in the Syrian civil war, assisting the Syrian government in regaining control over large swaths of the country it had previously lost to armed groups. Syria is home to a permanent Russian air base and Russia's only warm water port outside the former Soviet Union.⁴
• Assad's visit to Moscow comes days after senior US military officials visited US forces and their local allies in northeastern Syria — where Washington has maintained a presence for nearly eight years — and after China recently brokered a diplomatic rapprochement between Tehran and US-ally Saudi Arabia.⁵

Sources: ¹Reuters (a), ²Associated Press, ³Reuters (b), ⁴Reuters (c) and ⁵Bloomberg.

Narratives

• Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by Citizen. Assad's visit to Moscow and the planned meeting of the deputy foreign ministers of Turkey, Syria and Iran are further signs that the US is increasingly unable to impose its will in the region. Meanwhile, the US continues its illegal occupation of Syrian territory to plunder the country's oil wealth under the guise of fighting terrorism. The global South is aware that Washington is behind the chaos and conflict in the region, yet with a strong Russian military presence on the ground, there is an opportunity
• Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by Al arabiya english. The fact that dictator Assad is offering Moscow to boost its military presence in Syria underscores his dependence on Putin to stay in power. It's Assad who brutally put down peaceful protests in 2011 and, backed by Russia and Iran, waged a bloody war against his own people, with hundreds of thousands of deaths. While more and more regional powers consider normalizing their relations with Damascus, the West must continue to stand with the Syrian people and ensure that Assad is held accountable for his crime