Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said on Monday that Russia was in contact with Syria’s new administration at both a diplomatic and military level, Reuters reported.

Moscow has said previously it is in talks about the fate of a naval facility it operates at the port of Tartous and about the Hmeimim air base it operates in Latakia province.

According to Sputnik, Syria’s armed opposition captured Damascus on December 8. Syrian President Bashar Assad stepped down and left for Russia, where he was granted asylum. Mohammed al-Bashir, who ran an Idlib-based administration formed by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and other opposition groups, was named interim prime minister on December 10. He later announced that an interim government had been formed and would remain in place until March 2025.

Ushakov also said that leaders of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) countries will grant Iran an observer status at a meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council to be held in St. Petersburg on December 26.

He also said that Russia hoped that the current government in Syria would show interest in joining BRICS group of the emerging economies.

Russia expects that several other countries will soon respond to the invitation to join BRICS as partners, Ushakov maintained.

Presently, more than 20 countries are interested in joining BRICS, he said, adding that the group’s doors are open to like-minded countries.

Belarus, Bolivia, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Thailand, Cuba, Uganda, Malaysia and Uzbekistan will join BRICS as partner countries from January 1, 2025.

At the end of the Eurasian Economic Union summit in St. Petersburg, the leaders will sign documents granting Iran an observer status in the union, he added.

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