Damascus said it was seeking “strategic partnerships” with kyiv and would receive Ukrainian food aid. Meanwhile, the future of Russian military bases on Syrian territory is in doubt following the fall of Assad.
Syria hopes to establish “strategic partnerships” with Ukraine, its new foreign minister told his Ukrainian counterpart on Monday, as kyiv seeks to strengthen ties with the new Islamist rulers in Damascus amid a decline of Russian influence.
Russia was an unconditional ally of the ousted president Bashar Al-Assad and has granted him political asylum. Moscow has said it is in contact with the new Damascus administration, in particular on the fate of the Russian military facilities in Syria.
“There will be strategic partnerships between us and Ukraine at the political, economic and social levels, as well as scientific partnerships”, declared the newly appointed Syrian foreign minister, Asaad Hassan al-Shibani, to Ukrainian Andrii Sybiha.
"Certainly, The Syrian people and the Ukrainian people have the same experience and the same suffering that we have endured for 14 years.”, he added, apparently drawing a parallel between the brutal Syrian civil war from 2011 to 2024 and Russia's seizure of Ukrainian territory culminating in its full-scale invasion in 2022.
Sybiha, who also met on Monday in Damascus with Syria's new de facto ruler, Ahmed al-Sharaa, said Ukraine would send more shipments of food aid to Syria after the expected arrival of 20 shipments of flour on Tuesday.
Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, announced last Friday the shipment of the first batch of food aid from Ukraine to Syria, consisting of 500 metric tons of wheat flour, as part of kyiv's humanitarian initiative “Grain of Ukraine”, in cooperation with the United Nations World Food Programme.
Russia's influence is diminishing
Ukraine, world producer and exporter of cereals y oilseeds, traditionally exports wheat and corn to Middle Eastern countries, but not to Syria, which in the era Assad imported food from Russia.
Russian wheat supplies to Syria have been suspended due to the uncertainty on the new government in Damascus and the payment delays, according to Russian and Syrian sources Reuters in early December. Russia had supplied wheat to Syria through complex financial and logistical arrangements to circumvent the western sanctions imposed on both Moscow and Damascus.
The overthrow of Assad by the group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, has called into question the future of Russian military bases in Syria: the air base in Hmeimim in Latakia and Tartous Naval Facility.
The Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergei Lavrov, said that the status of Russian military bases would be the subject of negotiations with the new leaders in Damascus.
Al-Sharaa said this month that Syria's relations with Russia must serve common interestsIn an interview published on Sunday, he said Syria shared strategic interests with Russia, sounding conciliatory, but did not elaborate.
Elections in Syria
In a significant turn for the future of Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa has declared its intention to dissolve the organization he heads, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, as part of a process of political transition in the country.
The transition, which could last up to four years, will include the drafting of a new constitution and the realization of a comprehensive national census.
In an interview with the pan-Arab network Al Arabiya, al-Shara He explained that the dissolution of HTS It will be made official during the next National Dialogue Conference, which will take place in Damascus, although a date for this event has not yet been set.
The rebel leader stressed that the wording of A new Magna Carta is essential to establish a “durable political framework” that will allow us to overcome the divisions and conflicts that have marked the country for decades.
The transition process also includes the holding of elections, but Al-Shara stressed that these can only be held once the two fundamental conditions are met: the new Constitution and the carrying out of a census that will allow us to know precisely the demographic composition of the country.
This last point is crucial, as Syria has experienced a Deep social fragmentation and mass displacement population due to the civil war that began in 2011.
(With information from Reuters and EuropaPress)
Source: INFOBAE