Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad reaffirms his support for Russia in the war in Ukraine

The President of Syria, Bashar Al-Assad, had a meeting on January 12 this year with the special representative of the President of the Russian Federation, Aleksandr Lavrentiev, and the accompanying delegation, according to the Syrian news agency SANA.

,,The parties held discussions on the aspects of the Russian-Syrian strategic relationship and the means of their development in all areas that correspond to the interests of the two countries’’, the report states.

The agency also notes that the meeting also discussed the regional and international situation. Assad confirmed Syria's support for Russia in the ,,special operation’’ in Ukraine. Lavrentiev, for his part, emphasized that Moscow appreciates Syria's ,,constructive position’’and noted that currently there are many countries in the world that ,,believe in Russia's victory’’ despite pressure from the United States and its allies.

The special representative added that the Kremlin positively evaluates the trilateral meeting in Moscow on December 30, 2022, attended by the defense ministers of Russia, Syria and Turkey, where they discussed the possibility of ceding to Damascus the territories that the Turkish military controls in the north Syria, once the presence of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the north-east of the country is ended, this being a Kurdish-led alliance whose main component, the People's Protection Units (PPU), is considered terrorist by Ankara.

We remind that in June 2022, Syria decided to recognize the independence and sovereignty of the Donetsk (DPR) and Luhansk (LPR) People's Republics.

As a sign of appreciation, Natalia Nikoronova, the foreign minister of the DPR, had stated that the ,,new republic’’ was ready to establish diplomatic relations with Syria, the two states already having an active cooperation in the field of education, medicine and science.