Syria's president to ask Russia to hand over Bashar al-Assad

(AFP) Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, visiting Moscow on Wednesday, will ask his counterpart Vladimir Putin to hand over Bashar al-Assad, of whom Russia was a major backer.

Al-Sharaa, a former jihadist in Iraq and Syria in his youth, is making his first visit to Russia since in December he toppled al-Assad at the head of a coalition of armed groups.

The visit is highly symbolic, as Russia, along with Iran and the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah, was one of the main military supporters of the al-Assad regime during the Syrian civil war that began in 2011.

During the conflict, Russian aircraft abundantly attacked areas under rebel control, including Idlib, in the northwest, which in the last years of the conflict was controlled by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, led by Ahmed al-Sharaa.

Russia went so far as to place that group on its list of "terrorist" organizations in 2020, and in December, Bashar al-Assad found refuge in Moscow with his family, just after he was overthrown.

"We want to restore and redefine in a new way the nature of these [bilateral] relations, so that Syria enjoys its independence, sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity," the Syrian leader said at the meeting with Putin, broadcast on television.

Al-Sharaa highlighted "the common interests" between the two countries and the fact that part of Syria's food supply depends on Russian production.

Putin in turn welcomed the Syrian leader and stressed the "deep" ties between the two countries.

"In all these decades, we have always been guided by one thing: the interest of the Syrian people," Putin maintained.

A Syrian government official who requested anonymity told AFP that al-Sharaa will ask Putin "to surrender all individuals who committed war crimes and are in Russia, especially Bashar al-Assad."

The same official indicated that the two leaders would also discuss investments, the situation of Russian bases in Syria and the rearmament of the new Syrian military.

Russia has two major military assets in Syria, Tartus Naval Base and Hmeimim Air Base on the Mediterranean coast.

Moscow made extensive use of both facilities during its intervention in the Syrian Civil War, since 2015.