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DAMASCUS: Syria's new leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa and Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov meet on Jan 29, 2025. - AFP
DAMASCUS: Syria's new leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa and Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov meet on Jan 29, 2025. - AFP

Syria urges Russia to hand over Assad, pay compensation

DAMASCUS: Syria’s new leadership on Wednesday urged Moscow to “address past mistakes” during talks with visiting Russian officials — the first since former president Bashar Al-Assad, a Kremlin ally, was toppled last month. A Syrian source familiar with the discussions told Reuters that the new leader, Ahmed Al-Sharaa, had requested that Moscow hand over Assad, who fled to Russia when he was toppled by Sharaa’s rebels in December. Syrian news agency Sana said Damascus also wanted Russia to rebuild trust through “concrete measures such as compensation, reconstruction and recovery”.

The visit came with Russia keen to secure the fate of two military bases in Syria and after Russian President Vladimir Putin denied Moscow had suffered a strategic defeat in the Middle East following Assad’s ouster. Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said he and his delegation met for three hours with Sharaa and Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shaibani. “The new administration... stressed that restoring relations must address past mistakes, respect the will of the Syrian people and serve their interests,” Syria’s leadership said in a statement. Talks also covered “justice for the victims of the brutal war waged by the Assad regime”, it added.

Russia’s foreign ministry said the visit came at a “crunch point” in Russia-Syria relations, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov calling it an “important trip”. “It is necessary to build and maintain a permanent dialogue with the Syrian authorities, which is what we will continue to do,” Peskov told reporters in Moscow. Peskov declined to comment on reports that Syria’s new rulers had requested Assad’s extradition and to be paid compensation by Moscow.

Bogdanov, also Putin’s special envoy on the Middle East and Africa, was accompanied by

Alexander Lavrentyev, the president’s special envoy on Syria, Russia’s RIA Novosti agency reported. It said it was “the first visit by Russian officials to Damascus” since Assad fled in December in the face of a lightning rebel advance across the country. Moscow was one of Assad’s key backers, intervening in Syria’s civil war in 2015 in his favor.

Russia is now seeking to secure the fate of its naval base in Tartus and its air base at Khmeimim — both on Syria’s Mediterranean coast and Moscow’s only military bases outside the former Soviet Union — with the new Syrian authorities. Sharaa leads an Islamist group — Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) – that is banned in Russia as a “terrorist” organization. The organization is rooted in Al-Qaeda’s Syria branch but has more recently adopted a more moderate tone.

RT Arabic reported that Bogdanov described the visit as aimed at strengthening historic ties based on shared interests, and underlined Russia’s hopes for Syrian unity and independence. Sharaa in December noted the “deep strategic interests between Russia and Syria” in an interview with the Al-Arabiya TV channel. “All Syria’s arms are of Russian origin, and many power plants are managed by Russian experts... We do not want Russia to leave Syria in the way that some wish,” he said at the time.

Ukrainian diplomats visited Syria’s new rulers in December, with Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga urging Sharaa to expel Russia from the country. “We believe that from a strategic point of view, the removal of Russia’s presence in Syria will contribute to the stability of not only the Syrian state, but the entire Middle East and Africa,” Sybiga told Sharaa while in Damascus, according to a statement.

The Russian delegation’s visit comes amid a flurry of diplomatic activity by the new rulers aimed at building ties and easing sanctions. EU foreign ministers on Monday agreed to begin easing sanctions on Syria starting with key sectors such as energy. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday stressed the importance of “ensuring that the new government prevents Syria from becoming a source for international terrorism” and “denying foreign malign actors the opportunity to exploit Syria’s transition”. Saudi Arabia’s top diplomat, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, was received by Sharaa on Friday, making his first visit since Assad’s overthrow.

Meanwhile, Syria’s new authorities on Wednesday urged the Zionist entity’s withdrawal from Syrian territory it occupied in the Golan Heights after Assad’s ousting, during talks with UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix, state media reported. During Lacroix’s meeting with Syria’s foreign and defense ministers, “it was confirmed that Syria is ready to fully cooperate with the UN”, the SANA news agency said.

Syria is also ready to redeploy forces to the Golan in line with a 1974 agreement establishing a buffer zone “provided (Zionist) forces withdraw immediately”, SANA added. The Zionist entity sent troops into the demilitarized buffer zone on Dec 8, the day Assad was toppled. The Zionist entity seized most of the mountainous plateau from Syria during the 1967 Arab-Zionist war and annexed it in 1981. The UN-patrolled buffer zone was intended to keep Zionist and Syrian forces apart.

Forces loyal to Assad’s government had abandoned their positions in southern Syria before rebel groups even reached Damascus, leading Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to say there was a “vacuum on (the Zionist entity’s) border”. The United Nations considers the Zionist entity’s takeover of the buffer zone a violation of the 1974 disengagement accord. During his visit, Lacroix was to meet peacekeepers from the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), which monitors compliance with the deal.

In December, Zionist Defense Minister Israel Katz ordered the military to “prepare to remain” in the buffer zone throughout winter. On Tuesday, he said troops would remain “at the top of Mount Hermon and in the security zone indefinitely to protect Golan communities, the north and all (Zionist) citizens.” Mount Hermon straddles Syria and Lebanon, overlooking the Golan Heights. “We will not allow hostile forces to establish themselves in the security zone in southern Syria,” he said. – Agencies

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