In a highly symbolic and ironic move to lash out at the United States for its ongoing illegal occupation of Hasakah and Deir Ezzor provinces, the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad marks the first to say it "supports" Vladimir Putin's decision to recognize the breakaway separatist republics in eastern Ukraine as independent (with the obvious exception of Belarus of course).
Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad vowed his country "will cooperate" with the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and Luhansk People’s Republic (LNR), according to Al Jazeera, citing state media.
Damascus was among the first foreign allied governments of Russia to reportedly be briefed on Moscow's intentions in eastern Ukraine, according to Russian media.
Speaking of Assad, a top Russian politician responsible for communications with its Syrian ally had this to say: "He said that Syria would be ready to recognize them the way it had recognized [breakaway Georgian regions of] South Ossetia and Abkhazia” after the 2008 Russian-Georgian war, Sablin told the RIA Novosti news agency."
With the 'recognition' of the Russian change in status for Ukraine's DPR and LNR, Syria is not only hitting back at the US over the years-long push for regime change via proxy war, but is also repaying its loyalty following Russia's 2015 intervention in Syria at Damascus' request. Russia's military, especially its air power, decisively turned the tide of the war in favor of pro-Assad forces.
Earlier
this month Russia launched military exercises off the Syrian coast in
the Mediterranean, and just last week Russian Defense Minister Sergei
Shoigu met with Assad for talks while he was in the country inspecting
Russia's major airbase near Latakia.
Stopping Russia from interfering in Syria would have been awesome for Al Qaeda & ISIS. https://t.co/5f3XOwr3d5
— Max Abrahms (@MaxAbrahms) February 21, 2022
Overall, despite some 1,000 US troops currently occupying the oil-rich northeast Syria region, the ten-year long war there is widely perceived as yet another humiliation for America in the Middle East. Assad is still in power, the main US proxies having lost the war, and Russia has a bigger than ever presence in the levant region - with Iran also more deeply entrenched than before 2011.
