Syria’s new government ends Russian lease of Tartous port: What we know

Syria’s new authorities terminated a contract this week with a Russian company that had managed the port of Tartous for more than five years, further restricting the Russian presence in the country since the fall of the former Assad regime last month.

The director of the customs department at the Tartous governorate in western Syria, Riyad Judi, confirmed to the Syrian al-Watan newspaper on Monday that the agreement signed with the Russian company to run and invest in the strategic Mediterranean port was canceled.

He added that all the revenues from the port will now go to “the benefit of the Syrian state.”

According to Judi, the transitional government is planning to reduce custom fees at the port by 60%. He noted that the commercial activity at the port is currently “excellent” with Syrian, Arab, international and transit vessels carrying various types of goods including iron, carbonates and sugar.

The agreement was signed in 2019 between the former Assad government and Russian engineering company Stroytransgaz for the management of the port of Tartous for a period of 49 years. Syrian Minister of Transport Ali Hammoud said at the time that Stroytransgaz would also invest more than $500 million in the port. Under the contract, the Russian company would get 65% of the port’s profits, while the remaining 35% would go to the Assad government.

The Tartous port is Syria’s second largest after Latakia with a capacity of about four million tons and about 20,000 thousand containers annually, and is home to Russia’s only naval base in the Mediterranean Sea. Built by the Soviet Union in 1971 and expanded in 2017, the Tartous naval base became a strategic point for Russia’s operations in the Mediterranean.

Coinciding with the news of the agreement’s cancellation was the arrival on Tuesday of the Russian cargo ship Sparta II to the port, according to the Marine Traffic monitoring service.

According to media reports, Syrian authorities allowed the ship to enter the port after it waited off the Syrian coast for more than 14 days due to restrictions imposed by the new authorities.

The Russian ship is believed to be carrying military equipment.  

After the swift rebel takeover of Syria and the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad on Dec. 8, Russia’s military presence in Syria was thrown into doubt. Russia's other base in Syria is the Khmeimim air base, which it established in 2015 as part of its military intervention in the country in support of Assad’s forces against the rebels. In the days following the fall of Assad, Russian troops and vehicles were seen evacuating their bases in Syria en masse, with reports that Russia was moving assets elsewhere in the Middle East, including to Libya.

On Dec. 12, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said his country was in direct contact with the new authorities in Syria to maintain its military bases in the country. But the new Syrian government has yet to announce a decision in this regard.