European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs Kaja Kallas has said that the fall of the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad has exposed just how weak Russia and Iran are.
On Sunday Syrian rebels toppled the brutal Assad regime ending 24-years of him being in power and end’s the Assad’s family rule after a total of 54-years.
Kallas said that Assad being toppled is a “positive and long-awaited development,” adding the collapse of the regime “shows the weakness of Assad’s backers, Russia and Iran.”
Russia has been a long supported of the Assad regime and Vladimir Putin was given the Tartus Naval Base and the Khmeimim Air Base.
In 2016 Putin was awarded the military bases by Assad as Russia played a major role in capturing Syria’s second largest city, Aleppo which gave the Assad regime political gains.
Donald Trump said on Sunday that Assad’s dictatorship ending shows just how strained Russia’s foreign policy is.
Ukraine’s military intelligence agency (HUR) has said on Sunday that Moscow has started to withdraw their warships and other military assets from Syria as Assad has been toppled and fled the country.
Rebels have taken over the Syrian capital Damascus, Latakia, Hama and Tartus where Russian military bases are based, the HUR confirmed.
Two warships, the frigate “Admiral Grygorovych” and the cargo ship “Inzhenier Trubin,” fled the Tartus Naval Base which is Vladimir Putin’s only base in the Mediterranean Sea and was provided to Moscow as part of a security agreement with the Assad regime, the Kyiv Independent reports.
Russian military cargo planes are transferring vast amounts of weapons from the Khmeimim Air Base and will most likely be used in Putin’s war against Ukraine.
Ukraine‘s military intelligence agency said that this will be a major blow for Putin losing the Tartus and the Khmeimim Air Base meaning the Kremlin will now have no military assets in the Middle East.
The former Home Secretary Priti Patel has said the UK and the international community needs to watch the situation in Syria “very carefully.”
Patel told Sky News that this is about “the Syrian people” and we need figure out a peace plan as “Syrians need to be protected. All communities and groups, including all minorities.”
The former Home Secretary added, “We all need to look very carefully about how we respond,” as there is a “degree of anxiety” across the Middle East.
Patel said, “I think the anxiety is very much a case of we don’t quite know the full extent of what’s going on.
“There are wider questions even about Assad’s regime, his weapons and supplies, what could go on and happen on the ground, which comes back to my point about the protection of the Syrian people and minority groups.
“I think realistically now, we have a responsibility with our friends and allies and close partners in this region to look at how we can structure with Syria a potential peace plan.” “There are wider questions even about Assad’s regime, his weapons and supplies, what could go on and happen on the ground, which comes back to my point about the protection of the Syrian people and minority groups.
“I think realistically now, we have a responsibility with our friends and allies and close partners in this region to look at how we can structure with Syria a potential peace plan.”
