Syria’s New Leadership to Assess Russian Military Presence in Country: Politician

U.S. Army soldiers prepare to go on patrol from a remote combat outpost in northeastern Syria on May 25, 2021. John Moore/Getty Images

Syria’s incoming leadership will decide the fate of Russia’s substantial military presence in the country, a prominent Syrian politician has told Russian state news agency TASS.

“The issue of [Russian] military bases is a sovereign decision of the Syrian state,” the news agency quoted Mohammed Alloush as saying on Dec. 11.

Since 2015, Russia has kept a large military presence in Syria to support former president Bashar al-Assad, whose regime abruptly collapsed on Dec. 8.

Moscow, which has since granted asylum to Assad and his family, has an airbase in Syria’s eastern Latakia province and a naval base near the coastal city of Tartus.

According to Alloush, the continued presence of the two Russian bases will “be assessed based on the benefits and interests of the Syrian people, as well as Russia’s interests.”

Alloush previously served as the political leader of Syria’s Jaysh al-Islam faction, a coalition of armed Islamist groups that had fought against the Assad regime.

In 2016, Alloush served as chief negotiator for Syrian opposition forces at peace talks held in Geneva, Switzerland.

On Dec. 8, Assad abruptly stepped down after almost 25 years in power when armed rebels—led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham terrorist group—captured Damascus and other key cities.

Hours after the capital fell to the rebels, Moscow declared that there was “no serious threat” to its military bases but said the facilities had been put on “high alert.”

On Dec. 9, TASS reported that rebel forces had entered both Latakia and Tartus but that both Russian bases were “functioning normally.”

Two days later, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow remained in contact “with those who are in control of the situation at present.”

“This is crucial because the country hosts our bases and diplomatic missions,” he told reporters.

When asked how many Russian troops remain stationed in Syria, Peskov declined to comment.

U.S. Marine Corps tactical vehicles on a road near the town of Tal Baydar in the countryside of Syria's northeastern Hasakeh province on Dec. 21, 2018. Delil Souleiman/AFP/Getty Images

In his recent remarks, Alloush also said that the U.S. military presence in Syria would be “considered by the [Syrian] people in terms of expediency and benefit to the nation.”

Since 2015, U.S. forces have been deployed in eastern and northeastern Syria as part of an international coalition tasked with fighting the ISIS terrorist group.

Roughly 900 U.S. troops remain in the country, where they control a string of military bases and oilfields east of the Euphrates River near the Iraqi border.

Washington says the deployments are necessary to prevent a resurgence of ISIS, which seized vast swaths of territory in Syria—and Iraq—from 2014 to 2019.

Before its sudden collapse, the Assad regime had described the ongoing U.S. military presence in Syria as an “illegal occupation.”

Speaking to TASS, Alloush expressed hope that post-Assad Syria would become “a country of local and global peace, without the presence of foreign military bases of any party.”

On Dec. 10, U.S. deputy national security adviser Jon Finer said Assad’s departure did not mean that U.S. forces would withdraw from the country.

“Those troops are there for a very specific and important reason, not as some sort of bargaining chip,” Finer told Reuters.

He said U.S. troops deployed in Syria “have been there now for the better part of a decade or more to fight ISIS. ... we are still committed to that mission.”

When asked whether U.S. forces were set to remain in the conflict-torn country, Finer said, “Yes.”

Reuters contributed to this report.