Syria’s Ports Working Normally as Ukraine Looks to Supply Staple Foods

 A man works on a cargo ship docked at a terminal of the port of Latakia, Syria, Monday, Dec. 16, 2024. (AP)
A man works on a cargo ship docked at a terminal of the port of Latakia, Syria, Monday, Dec. 16, 2024. (AP)
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Syria’s Ports Working Normally as Ukraine Looks to Supply Staple Foods

 A man works on a cargo ship docked at a terminal of the port of Latakia, Syria, Monday, Dec. 16, 2024. (AP)
A man works on a cargo ship docked at a terminal of the port of Latakia, Syria, Monday, Dec. 16, 2024. (AP)

Syria's main ports are working normally after days of disruptions, maritime officials said on Monday, and Ukraine said it was in touch with the interim government about delivering staple foods.

President Bashar al-Assad was ousted on Dec. 8 by opposition forces led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group. Since then, Israel has carried out airstrikes around Syria's main port Latakia, and shipping sources also said ports had been short of workers.

On Monday, port official Hasan Jablawi told Reuters that Latakia was functioning normally and cargo ships that had been waiting for several days were unloading.

The Turkish-flagged Med Urla general cargo vessel was among the first ships to discharge and sail from Latakia on Monday, according to LSEG ship tracking data.

Shipping sources said Syria's other main port Tartous was also operating, although there was a backlog to clear.

Russian and Syrian sources said on Friday that Russian wheat supplies to Syria had been suspended after two vessels carrying Russian wheat had failed to reach their destinations in Syria.

Russia, the world's largest wheat exporter, had dominated wheat sales to Syria, according to shipping and trade sources, using complex financial and logistical arrangements to circumvent Western sanctions. Figures on Syria's needs or stock levels were not readily available, however.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday his government would set up mechanisms to deliver food to Syria together with international organisations and partners.

"We can help Syrians with Ukrainian wheat, flour, and oil," he added in his daily wartime address on Sunday.

A Ukrainian industry source confirmed there was active communication with the Syrian administration over food shipments.



Türkiye’s Foreign Minister Meets HTS Leader in Damascus

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks during a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Ministry headquarters in the Turkish capital Ankara Friday, Dec. 13, 2024. (AP)
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks during a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Ministry headquarters in the Turkish capital Ankara Friday, Dec. 13, 2024. (AP)
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Türkiye’s Foreign Minister Meets HTS Leader in Damascus

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks during a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Ministry headquarters in the Turkish capital Ankara Friday, Dec. 13, 2024. (AP)
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks during a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Ministry headquarters in the Turkish capital Ankara Friday, Dec. 13, 2024. (AP)

Türkiye’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met with Syria's de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus on Sunday, Türkiye’s foreign ministry said, without providing further details.

Photographs and footage shared by the ministry showed Fidan and Sharaa, leader of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, which led the operation to topple Bashar al-Assad two weeks ago, walking ahead of a crowded delegation before posing for photographs.

The two are also seen shaking hands, hugging, and smiling.

On Friday, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said that Türkiye would help Syria's new administration form a state structure and draft a new constitution, adding Fidan would head to Damascus to discuss this new structure, without providing a date.

Ibrahim Kalin, the head of Türkiye’s MIT intelligence agency, also visited Damascus on Dec. 12, four days after Assad's fall.

Ankara had for years backed opposition fighters looking to oust Assad and welcomed the end of his family's brutal five-decade rule after a 13-year civil war. Türkiye also hosts millions of Syrian migrants it hopes will start returning home after Assad's fall, and has vowed to help rebuild Syria.

Fidan's visit comes amid fighting in northeast Syria between Türkiye-backed Syrian fighters and the Kurdish YPG militia, which spearheads the US-allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the northeast and Ankara regards as a terrorist organization.

Earlier, Türkiye’s defense minister said Ankara believed that Syria's new leadership, including the Syrian National Army (SNA) armed group which Ankara backs, will drive YPG fighters from all territory they occupy in the northeast.

Ankara, alongside Syrian allies, has mounted several cross-border offensives against the Kurdish faction in northern Syria and controls swathes of Syrian territory along the border, while repeatedly demanding that its NATO ally Washington halts support for the Kurdish fighters.

The SDF has been on the back foot since Assad's fall, with the threat of advances from Ankara and Türkiye-backed groups as it looks to preserve political gains made in the last 13 years, and with Syria's new rulers being friendly to Ankara.