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Russian Military Patrols Syria's Golan Heights

Russian military units patrolling Golan Heights (Russia Today)
Russian military units patrolling Golan Heights (Russia Today)
    Damascus, London - Asharq Al-Awsat
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Russian Military Patrols Syria's Golan Heights

Russian military units patrolling Golan Heights (Russia Today)
Russian military units patrolling Golan Heights (Russia Today)

Russia media published a video of Russian military units patrolling the Syrian side of the Golan Heights, occupied by Israel since 1967.

The video showed soldiers and vehicles separating the Syrian and Israeli armies and observation points on hills and high areas in the region. Some of the soldiers were seen wearing combat fatigue bearing the letter "Z," the symbol of the military campaign in Ukraine.

Last January, Russian military planes carried out a patrol with the Syrian Air Force in the Golan, along with Israel, which continues to bomb Iranian sites around Syria.

The Russian Ministry of Defense announced that the fighters were launched from the Russian Hmeimim base and al-Dumayr Airport.

The statement said the Russian and Syrian military pilots had conducted a joint air patrol mission along the Golan Heights and the Euphrates River.

"The mission's route ran along the Golan Heights, the southern border, the Euphrates River and over northern Syria," the statement read.

"Russian pilots took off from the Hmeymim Air Base, while Syrians took off from the Seikal and Dumayr airfields outside Damascus," the ministry added.

The mission involved Russia's Su-34 and Su-35 aircraft and the A-50 early warning and control aircraft, as well as Syria's MiG-23 and MiG-29 planes.

At the end of 2020, it was reported that Russian forces would conduct their first patrol along the Syrian border with Israel.

Sources said the Russian vehicles moved towards the military base, the Russian observation center in the Quneitra region.

The redeployment implemented Moscow's decision to revive the UN Disengagement Forces (UNDOF) in the Golan.

According to a Russian official, Moscow is assisting the Syrian army in joint exercises in the Golan region, noting that the goal of the Russian presence is to monitor the ceasefire in the demilitarized zone on the border with Israel.

In August 2018, international forces agreed on a de-escalation zone in southern Syria.

Israeli and international media said that the Iranian forces had withdrawn their heavy weapons in Syria to 85 km from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

"The Iranians withdrew, and the Shiite formations are not there," TASS news agency quoted Russian presidential special envoy to Syria Alexander Lavrentiev, as saying.

The redeployment came in implementation of the agreement concluded between former US President Donald Trump and Russian Vladimir Putin during their meeting in Helsinki in mid-July 2018.

Both presidents asserted that the US and Russia would work together to ensure Israel's security.

"We both spoke with Bibi (the then-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu), and they would like to do certain things with Syria having to do with the safety of Israel," Trump said, adding that "creating safety for Israel is something both Putin and I would like to see very much."

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Syria's New Foreign Minister to Appear at the UN in His First US Visit

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shibani, left, and Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi attend a round table meeting at the 9th international conference in support of Syria at the European Council building in Brussels, Monday, March 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shibani, left, and Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi attend a round table meeting at the 9th international conference in support of Syria at the European Council building in Brussels, Monday, March 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
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Syria's New Foreign Minister to Appear at the UN in His First US Visit

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shibani, left, and Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi attend a round table meeting at the 9th international conference in support of Syria at the European Council building in Brussels, Monday, March 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shibani, left, and Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi attend a round table meeting at the 9th international conference in support of Syria at the European Council building in Brussels, Monday, March 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani was set to raise his country’s new flag at the United Nations headquarters in New York Friday and to attend a UN Security Council briefing, the first public appearance by a high-ranking Syrian government official in the United States since the fall of former President Bashar Assad in a lightning opposition offensive in December.

The three-starred flag that had previously been used by opposition groups has replaced the two-starred flag of the Assad era as the country's official emblem, the Associated Press said.

The new authorities in Damascus have been courting Washington in hopes of receiving relief from harsh sanctions that were imposed by the US and its allies in the wake of Assad’s brutal crackdown on anti-government protests in 2011 that spiraled into a civil war.

A delegation of Syrian officials traveled to the United States this week to attend World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings in Washington and UN meetings in New York. It was unclear if Trump administration officials would meet with al-Shibani during the visit.

The Trump administration has yet to officially recognize the current Syrian government, led by Ahmad al-Sharaa, who led the offensive that toppled Assad. Washington has also so far left the sanctions in place, although it has provided temporary relief to some restrictions. The opposition group al-Sharaa led, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, remains a US-designated terrorist organization.

Two Republican members of the US Congress, Rep. Marlin Stutzman of Indiana and Rep. Cory Mills of Florida, arrived in Damascus last week on an unofficial visit organized by a Syrian-American nonprofit and met with al-Sharaa and other government officials.

Mills told The Associated Press before meeting with al-Sharaa that “ultimately, it’s going to be the president’s decision” to lift sanctions or not, although he said that “Congress can advise.”

Mills later told Bloomberg News that he had discussed the US conditions for sanctions relief with al-Sharaa, including ensuring the destruction of chemical weapons left over from the Assad era, coordinating on counter-terrorism, making a plan to deal with foreign militants who fought alongside the armed opposition to Assad, and providing assurances to Israel that Syria would not pose a threat.

He also said that al-Sharaa had said Syria could normalize relations with Israel “under the right conditions,” without specifying what those conditions are.

Other Western countries have warmed up to the new Syrian authorities more quickly. The British government on Thursday lifted sanctions against a dozen Syrian entities, including government departments and media outlets, and the European Union has begun to roll back its sanctions.