Tartus, Syria (Ports Europe) December 9, 2024 – Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad regime collapsed, Russia is negotiating with the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) for the preservation of its only base in the Mediterranean Sea – Tartus port. Is it not time for the U.S., NATO or the European Union to look into the opportunity to take over the strategic port and the naval base?
Russia will try to “buy” its Tartus naval base from Islamists
Turkey would also be very keen to have a port and a naval base in Tartus. And we should not forget China, which can easily afford to invest hundreds of millions in a port like Tartus, regardless of the chaos in Syria. So, the question is who will move first and secure long-term use of the port.
Back to Russia. Symptomatic is the fact that the Iranian embassy in Damascus was ransacked while the Russian one was not. The Kremlin had probably already offered the Islamists HTS money and, more importantly, oil, grain and weapons in an attempt to preserve its naval and military (airport) bases in Syria. Tartus is the Russian navy’s only repair and replenishment point in the Mediterranean.
Russian media is reporting that the Tartus navy facility operates as usual and that the Kremlin was assured by the Islamists insurgents that the base will not be invaded. For Russia, providing HTS with oil and grain costs almost nothing. At the same time, Iran diverted on December 8 its tanker ships heading towards Syria saying it’s not going to deliver petrol to the insurgents.
Russia and Iran are leaving Syria
During the weekend, Iran and Russia were evacuating military personnel, embassy staff and citizens from Syria, also using the ports of Latakia and Tartus, as the two most sanctioned countries in the world were unable to help keep Bashar al-Assad in power.
Russia might lose Tartus port and Syria
Local sources and Western media claimed on December 6 that half of the Russian navy ships that participated in a live-firing exercise, hurriedly organised by Moscow four days ago, did not return to Tartus, probably heading to the Baltic Sea.
Background
In the Syrian civil war, Russia sided with and saved the regime in Damascus, and the Tartus port was the benefit of this strategy. Currently, Russia is bogged down in Ukraine. Iran, Damascus’ other ally, lost the capabilities of its proxies – Islamists Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hizballah (Hezbollah) in Lebanon due to Israel’s onslaught.
Russia withdrew most of its soldiers and equipment from Syria and redeployed them to Ukraine, where its invasion army suffered heavy losses. Damascus government of Bashar al-Assad was caught off guard by the swift rebel operation.
Interestingly, Sunni’s HTS (Levant Liberation Committee’) is considered a “terrorist” organisation by everybody – Syria, the United States, the United Nations, the European Union, Turkey and Russia. HTS is a jihadist alliance that has controlled Idlib province in northwestern Syria since 2017, formed by the merger of several Islamist groups, including the al-Qaeda affiliate Nusra.
The war in Ukraine may cost the Russian navy the Mediterranean Sea and easy access to world oceans. The Soviet Union, and later Russia, maintained a presence at Tartus since the 1970s. Losing Tartus would be catastrophic for Russian power projection in Southern Europe and North Africa.
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