DAMASCUS (Sputnik) — Assad said his goal as Syria’s president is to resist foreign interference in the country.
“There is a connection between the Syrian crisis and what is happening in Ukraine. Firstly, because both countries are important for Russia. Secondly, because there is a goal in both cases to weaken Russia and create puppet states,” Assad told Russian reporters.
The Syrian authorities will not oppose the revival and expansion of a Russian naval facility in the port of Tartus if Moscow decides to do it, President Bashar Assad said on Thursday.
"We welcome the expansion of Russian presence in eastern Mediterranean, especially near our shores and in our ports," Assad said in an interview with Russian journalists.
The naval facility in Tartus, established in Soviet times, has been used for the maintenance and resupply of Russian warships in the Mediterranean.
With the escalation of the Syrian crisis, Russia withdrew all military personnel from the Tartus base and replaced them with civilian workers. However, after the deployment of a large naval task force in the Mediterranean in 2013, Moscow has been considering the revival of the facility.
Assad said the more prominent Russia's presence in the region grew, the more stable the area became, since Russia played an important role in maintaining stability around the world.
He added that a decision on the expansion of the Tartus facility must be taken by the Russian authorities.
