Russia mentioned on Wednesday it had held “frank” discussions with Syria’s new de facto chief because it tries to retain its two army bases within the nation, however it declined to touch upon what he was demanding in return.
A Syrian supply aware of the discussions informed Reuters that the brand new chief, Ahmed al-Sharaa, had requested that Moscow hand over former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, who fled to Russia when he was toppled by Sharaa’s rebels in December.
Syrian information company Sana mentioned Damascus additionally wished Russia, which backed Assad within the nation’s civil warfare, to rebuild belief by “concrete measures akin to compensation, reconstruction and restoration”.
Requested to verify whether or not Russia had been requested to return Assad and pay compensation, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to remark.
Russia, whose troops and air pressure backed Assad for years in opposition to Syrian rebels, is in search of to retain its naval base in Tartous and Hmeimim air base close to the port metropolis of Latakia. Shedding them would deal a severe blow to its potential to mission energy within the area.
The brand new Syrian administration mentioned after Tuesday’s talks with a Russian delegation headed by Deputy Overseas Minister Mikhail Bogdanov that it had “confused that restoring relations should deal with previous errors, respect the need of the Syrian individuals and serve their pursuits”.
However the Syrian supply informed Reuters that the Russians had not been prepared to concede such errors and the one settlement that was reached was to proceed discussions.
Russia’s international ministry mentioned there had been a “frank dialogue of the complete vary of points”. It mentioned the 2 sides would pursue additional contacts as a way to search “related agreements”, with out referring particularly to the 2 bases.
