|
2024-12-15 Syria-Lebanon-Iran
|
|
After Assad’s fall, Russia pulling some, but not all, of its forces out of Syria
|
[IsraelTimes] Moscow says it will maintain presence at two main Syrian bases; attitude of new regime toward Russian presence is still unclear
Russia is pulling back its military from the front lines in northern Syria and from posts in the Alawite Mountains but is not leaving its two main bases in the country after the fall of President Bashir al-Assad, four Syrian officials told Rooters.
The ousting of Assad, who along with his late father, former President Hafez al-Assad, had forged a close alliance with Moscow, has thrown the future of Russia’s bases — the Hmeimim airbase in Latakia and the Tartus naval facility — into question.
Satellite footage from Friday showed what appeared to be at least two Antonov AN-124s, among the world’s largest cargo planes, at the Hmeimim base with their nose cones open, apparently preparing to load up.
At least one cargo plane flew out on Saturday for Libya, a Syrian security official stationed outside the facility said.
Syrian military and security sources in contact with the Russians told Rooters that Moscow was pulling back its forces from the front lines and withdrawing some heavy equipment and senior Syrian officers.
But the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation, said Russia was not pulling out of its two main bases and currently had no intention of doing so.
Some equipment is being shipped back to Moscow, as are senior officers from Assad’s military, but the aim at this stage is to regroup and redeploy as dictated by developments on the ground, a senior Syrian army officer in touch with the Russian military told Rooters.
A senior rebel official close to the new interim administration told Rooters the issue of the Russian military presence in Syria and past agreements between the Assad government and Moscow were not under discussion.
"It is a matter for future talks, and the Syrian people will have the final say," the official said, adding that Moscow had set up communication channels.
"Our forces are also now in close vicinity of the Russian bases in Latakia," he added without elaborating.
The Kremlin has said Russia is in discussions with the new rulers of Syria over the bases. Russia’s defense ministry did not respond to a request for comment on Rooters reporting.
A Russian source who spoke on condition of anonymity said discussions with the new rulers of Syria were ongoing and Russia was not withdrawing from its bases.
Rooters was unable to immediately ascertain how Syrian rebel leader Ahmad al-Sharaa — better known as Abu Mohammed al-Julani — saw the long-term future of the Russian bases.
Russian President Vladimir Putin
...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances...
, whose 2015 intervention in the Syrian civil war helped prop up Assad when the West was calling for him to be toppled, granted Assad asylum in Russia after Moscow helped him flee on Sunday.
Moscow has backed Syria since early in the Cold War and recognized its independence in 1944 as Damascus sought to throw off French colonial rule. The West long regarded Syria as a Soviet satellite.
The bases in Syria are an integral part of Russia’s global military presence: the Tartus naval base is Russia’s only Mediterranean repair and resupply hub, with Hmeimim a major staging post for military and mercenary activity in Africa.
Russia also has eavesdropping posts in Syria, which were run alongside Syrian signals stations, according to Syrian military and Western intelligence sources.
The Tartus facility dates from 1971, and after Russia intervened in the civil war to help Assad, Moscow was in 2017 granted a free-of-charge 49-year lease.
Yoruk Isik, a geopolitical analyst based in Istanbul who runs the Bosphorus Observer, said that Russia was probably sending cargo planes out of Syria via the Caucasus and then on to the Al Khadim airbase in Libya.
On the highway linking the Hmeimim air base to the base in Tartus, a Russian convoy of infantry fighting vehicles and logistics vehicles could be seen driving toward the air base, a Rooters journalist said.
The convoy had stopped due to a malfunction in one of its vehicles, with soldiers standing by the vehicles and working to repair the issue.
"Whether it’s Russian, Iranian or the previous government who was oppressing us and denying us our rights... we don’t want any intervention from Russia, Iran
 ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
or any other foreign intervention," Ali Halloum, who is from Latakia and lives in Jablah, told Rooters.
At Hmeimim, Rooters saw Russian soldiers walking around the base as normal and jets in the hangars.
Satellite imagery taken on December 9 by Planet Labs showed at least three vessels in Russia’s Mediterranean fleet — two guided missile frigates and an oiler — moored around 13 kilometers (8 miles) northwest of Tartus. 
|
Posted by trailing wife 2024-12-15 2024-12-15 00:58||
||
Front Page|| [11154 views ]
Top
|
|
21:09 Airandee
20:42 Woodrow
20:19 swksvolFF
20:17 swksvolFF
18:46 Grom the Affective
18:40 DooDahMan
18:34 Frank G
18:25 Frank G
18:22 Grom the Affective
18:11 trailing wife
18:06 Hellfish
17:49 Grom the Affective
17:19 Abu Uluque
17:04 Abu Uluque
17:02 swksvolFF
16:48 Grom the Affective
16:46 Grom the Affective
16:46 Mullah Richard
16:05 swksvolFF
15:26 Procopius2k
15:23 NN2N1
14:59 Pancho Poodle8452
14:52 Rambler
14:51 Grom the Affective
|
