This decision by the Syrian government could foreshadow Russia’s definitive withdrawal from this port where, in addition to commercial activities, it had developed a strategic naval base for its forces in the Mediterranean.
The Syrian government has canceled the 49-year lease granted to a Russian company STG-Engineering (Stroytransgaz) to manage and commercially operate the port of Tartus on the Mediterranean coast. The General Authority of the Port of Tartous canceled the contract with this company which took 65% of the port’s revenues and demanded that it leave the site immediately, according to Syrian media. The lease was signed in 2019, four years after the start of Russia’s military intervention in Syria to bring the Assad regime under control.
The port of Tartous is the second largest Syrian port after that of Latakia near which the Russian air base of Hmeimim is located. Above all, Tartous is home to the only Russian naval base in the Mediterranean. The Russian fleet deserted it when Bashar al-Assad fell on December 8. A setback for Moscow, whose base had taken on strategic importance since the start of the war in Ukraine and the closure of the Turkish straits to the military vessels of the belligerent states, in accordance with the Montreux Convention (1936), de facto enclosing the Russian fleet from the Black Sea without the possibility of receiving reinforcements via the Mediterranean.
Negotiations are reportedly underway on the future of Russian military bases on Syrian territory. But two Russian ships targeted by American sanctions belonging to a company working for the Russian Defense Ministry, the Sparta and Sparta 2, docked in Tartus. Their automatic identification systems (AIS) indicate that they arrived on January 21 and 22. They could evacuate military equipment gathered at the port in recent weeks.
-© An article from the editorial staff of Mer et Marine. Reproduction prohibited without consent of the author(s).
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