New Syrian government cancels lease of Russian port of Tartus

On Monday, Syria’s new government canceled Russia’s 49-year operating lease in the port of Tartus, ending a decades-long Russian naval presence in the Eastern Mediterranean. A military cargo ship that was wandering just off the coast has now docked at the Russian naval dock, where military vehicles are parked for a likely evacuation.

“According to the director of Tartus customs, the agreement signed with the Russian company to invest in the port of Tartus has been canceled and all its revenues now benefit the Syrian state,” local news agency Levant24 reported.

In early December, the U.S.-designated Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) terrorist group overthrew Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, prompting Assad’s Russian military supporters to retreat to their longtime bases. dates from Tartous and Hmeimem.

Under Assad, Russia had obtained the renewal for 49 years of its long-term lease on the port of Tartous, which houses the only Russian naval base in the Mediterranean. When HTS forced Assad to flee the country in December, this long-term port deal was called into question, since the Russian air force had bombed HTS and its allies throughout the civil war.

As an apparent precaution, the Russian Navy’s Mediterranean flotilla left Tartus en masse and took up positions off the coast. Military cargo ships Sparta And Sparta II joined the task force in early January and remained stationed at a race track for weeks, sparking speculation about a possible evacuation.

Amid rumors of the failure of negotiations on maintaining the Russian presence in Syria, Russian ground forces have accumulated a stockpile of valuable equipment on the Tartus embankment. Ukraine’s military intelligence agency HUR claimed earlier this month that Syria’s new rulers were not allowing Russian ships to enter Tartus to remove the huge buildup of equipment, which could include several air defense systems high-end S-400.

On Tuesday, after the announcement of the cancellation of Russia’s long-term port lease, the Sparta II entered the inner port and moored next to the equipment stockpile. Satellite imagery will soon confirm whether the ship begins loading vehicles awaiting shipment. The next destination, whether in Russia or another part of the Mediterranean, remains to be seen.

“There is no comparable alternative base for the (Russian navy) in the region,” British military intelligence said in a statement on Tuesday. “Its ability to logistically support both its military and its private military contractors in Africa, as well as limit the damage to its reputation caused by the fall of the Assad regime, will almost certainly be priorities for the Russian government .”

Another key change could soon be coming for Syrian ports. There are signs that HTS is dismantling the drug trafficking industry that supported the Al-Assad regime in the final years of the civil war. The manufacture and export of illicit stimulants has generated billions in revenue for Assad’s family and the Syrian army. Under the leadership of Bashar’s brother, Maher al-Assad, Syria became the world’s largest exporter of amphetamine known as captagon; the little yellow pills have become commonplace in the Middle East and have been favored by terrorist groups like the Islamic State because of their tendency to increase energy and courage in combat.

HTS security forces opened equipment to reveal illicit shipment of captagon pills (HTS)

Latakia was the captagon industry’s main port for importing precursors needed to make the drug, according to security researchers. Most exports crossed the Jordanian border clandestinely, but significant quantities were also hidden in sea freight shipments sent via Tartus and Latakia.