Russian military officials visit south Syria following high-level talks

A delegation of Russian military officials has been allowed to travel to southern Syria for the first time since the fall of the Assad regime almost a year ago.

The delegation conducted reconnaissance operations in Quneitra province on Monday alongside the Syrian interior ministry, a day after high-level military talks took place in Damascus, according to The New Arab's sister site Al-Araby Al-Jadeed

The convoy visited several locations in the province, including a site near the town of Beit Jinn which used to host a Russian military post.

Quneitra province, near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights region of Syria, has witnessed a series of attacks and incursions by Israel since the fall of longtime Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in December 2024.

Russia's deputy defence minister Yunus-bek Yevkurov was among the officials to hold talks with Syrian defence minister Murhaf Abu Qasra in the Syrian capital on Sunday.

Government sources told Al Jazeera that 190 Russian officials from various ministries and agencies were involved in the talks, which focused on repairing relations following the downfall of the Assad regime.

This is the second time in a month that Syria has hosted a Russian military delegation. A visit last month saw Russian officials discuss ways to rehabilitate the Syrian army, much of whose equipment was destroyed by Israel following Assad's ouster.

The visit comes a month after Syria's interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa made his first trip to Moscow in a sign of thawing ties between Russia and the new authorities in Damascus.

Russia was a major backer of Bashar al-Assad and in 2015 made a decisive military intervention in the country's brutal 14-year civil war that helped keep him in power.

Russia has been keen to mend ties with the country following Assad's overthrow in a bid to keep control of its Khmeimim airbase and naval base in Tartous.

Al-Sharaa has pressed Russia to extradite Assad, who has been living in exile in Moscow since fleeing the country last December.