MOSCOW, December 17. /TASS/. The armed special operation of military groups in Syria does not facilitate but also does not invalidate various BRICS projects, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister and Russia’s Sherpa in the BRICS Sergey Ryabkov stated in an interview with the TASS Analytical Center, summarizing the outcomes of Russia's chairmanship of the association.
The senior diplomat was asked about the impact of the events in Syria on the organization’s plans both regionally and globally. "It does not simplify things, clearly. But it does not invalidate them either. Instead, it mobilizes and consolidates will," Ryabkov responded.
"Regarding transport corridors, there were no current plans to create such corridors across the territories or components of those territories now controlled by forces who are part of the irreconcilable opposition to Bashar Assad’s government," he added, commenting on the prospects for infrastructure projects such as the North-South international transport corridor.
"There are other, no less significant geopolitical consequences of what is happening, which one of the new BRICS members, precisely Iran, articulates better than us," Ryabkov said. "They refer to the groups most affected by the events as the Axis of Resistance. But this belongs to a different type of geopolitics."
Syria’s armed opposition units launched a large-scale offensive on government troops in the Aleppo and Idlib governorates on November 27. Late on December 7, they seized several large cities, including Aleppo, Hama, Deir ez-Zor, Daraa, and Homs. On December 8, they entered Damascus while government troops withdrew from the city. President Bashar Assad resigned and fled the country. On December 10, Mohammed al-Bashir, who had served as prime minister of the so-called Salvation Government, the civilian administration formed by opposition groups in the Idlib governorate, since January, declared himself the head of the Syrian government for the transitional period to last until March 1, 2025.