Syrian leader seeks reset in Russia relations in Putin meeting

MOSCOW: Syrian President Ahmed Al Sharaa said on Wednesday he wanted to “redefine” relations with Moscow as Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted him in Moscow, their first meeting since key Kremlin ally Bashar Al Assad was ousted last year.

In front of the television cameras, Putin greeted Al Sharaa warmly at the Kremlin, but behind closed doors the Syrian leader was expected to push for Moscow to extradite Al Assad, who fled to Moscow after being toppled.

The two were also expected to discuss the status of Russia’s prized military bases in the country - the naval base in Tartus and air base at Hmeimim - the fate of which have been uncertain since the rebel takeover.

Russia was a key ally of Al Assad during the bloody 14-year Syrian civil war, providing vital military support that kept his forces in power.

But he was ousted from power last December in an offensive led by Al Sharaa’s Islamist forces, fleeing to Russia, which has been sheltering him and his family for the past 10 months.

In remarks at the start of the meeting, Al Sharaa acknowledged the two countries’ historic ties but said he wanted a recalibration, as he brings Damascus in from isolation on the world stage.

“We are trying to restore and redefine in a new way the nature of these relations so there is independence for Syria, sovereign Syria, and also its territorial unity and integrity and its security stability,” Al Sharaa told Putin.

The Russian leader hailed “special relations” between the two countries that “have developed between our countries over many decades.”

Neither mentioned Al Assad or the Russian bases, the main sticking points in the relationship.

Al Assad asylum

A Syrian government official told AFP before the meeting that Al Sharaa would request Putin hand over Al Assad, who Russia says it is protecting on “humanitarian grounds.”

The official, who requested anonymity as they were not allowed to brief the media, told AFP: “ [Al] Sharaa will ask the Russian president to hand over all individuals who committed war crimes and are in Russia, most notably Bashar Al Assad.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov confirmed earlier this week the ousted leader was still living in Moscow.

“We have granted asylum to Bashar Al Assad and his family for purely humanitarian reasons. He has no issues residing in our capital,” Lavrov said at a forum on Monday.

Russia’s military support for Al Assad helped turn the tide of the Syrian civil war in his favour when it started intervening in 2015.

Russian warplanes rained air strikes on rebel-held areas of Syria including the northwest Idlib region, which was largely controlled by Sharaa’s Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS) in the later years of the conflict.

During a government offensive launched in late 2019 to retake parts of the province, Moscow carried out hundreds of air strikes on the rebel bastion, causing casualties and widespread destruction, including to civilian infrastructure such as schools, hospitals, marketplaces and residential areas.

Moscow also sponsored so-called reconciliation deals between government forces and opposition factions in several parts of Syria that resulted in the evacuation of tens of thousands of civilians and fighters to Idlib.

Opposition faction Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS), of which Sharaa was a leader, was not one of them.

During the Syrian civil war in 2020, Russia placed HTS on its list of recognised “terrorists”.