NATO says Russia maintains ‘considerable’ Syria presence
Russia has kept a considerable military presence in conflict-torn Syria to bolster the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday.
“Despite the announced partial withdrawal we see that Russia maintains a considerable military presence in support of the Assad regime in Syria,” he said at a press conference in Turkey.
A month ago Russian President Vladimir Putin surprised the West by ordering the “main part” of his forces to pull out.
Despite Moscow having signed on to efforts to promote a political settlement in Syria, US officials have complained that Russian warplanes appear to be flying in support of Syrian forces attacking rebel positions in Aleppo.
Since the Kremlin said it was scaling down its air presence in the country, regime forces — backed up crucially by Russian firepower — have scored some of their most dramatic successes in areas not covered by a February ceasefire.
The landmark partial ceasefire, which was negotiated by the US and Russia, had dramatically curtailed violence across much of Syria and raised hopes that a lasting deal could be struck to end the bloodshed.
But a new round of fierce fighting last week around Aleppo overshadowed peace talks in Geneva aimed at ending the country’s five-year civil war.
Stoltenberg said the Syrian ceasefire “is under strain” but “remains the best basis for a negotiated peaceful solution to the crisis”.
He said traffickers were still trying to smuggle people across the Aegean Sea, despite an unprecedented naval mission by the alliance to help tackle Europe’s migration crisis.
“We have seen a significant reduction in the numbers” attempting the perilous crossing from Turkey to Greece, particularly since the implementation of a deal between Ankara and the European Union.
“But I think it is important not to end this activity too early because we still see that the smugglers are trying to get people over the Aegean,” he said.
Former Norwegian prime minister Stoltenberg said NATO’s deployment of ships and helicopters in Turkish and Greek territorial waters, launched early March, would “stay as long as needed,” rather than pull out now that numbers are dropping.
He warned that leaving could “see a return of high numbers of people,” adding that the alliance would “need to remain flexible because the people smugglers are shifting routes very rapidly”.
According to the UNHCR, the daily average number of people arriving in Greece via the Aegean has so far been 134 in April, down from 870 in March, when the NATO civilian operation launched and the EU-Turkey deal took effect.
Under the accord, migrants who travel to the Greek islands — a main entry point for those seeking a new life in Europe — are being returned to Turkey in return for billions in EU aid.
The EU also promised to resettle one Syrian refugee for every Syrian taken back by Turkey, to grant visa-free travel to Turks within the border-free Schengen Zone and to reassess Turkey’s stalled EU membership bid.
Stoltenberg said the NATO mission was creating “an additional platform for cooperation between Turkey and Greece and between Turkey and the EU”.
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