Russian Warships Dock at Syrian Port
News number: 9107124622 18:55 | 2012-12-05
http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=9107124622

TEHRAN (FNA)- Two Russian warships made a call at Russia's Mediterranean
naval base in Syria to resupply and refuel, reports said on Wednesday.

The landing ships Novocherkassk and Saratov docked in the port of Tartus for
several hours but their crews did not go ashore, the Interfax and ITAR-TASS
news agencies reported.

"They loaded up on fuel and water and had minor repairs," a source in the
naval chief of staff said.

The call took place at the end of November and lasted several hours. The
Tartus base is Russia's only remaining foreign military base outside the
former Soviet Union and is seen as a major strategic asset for Moscow.

Russia prefers to term the facility a "point of material-technical supply"
for the navy rather than a base and it is too shallow for large ships to
dock on shore.

Russia also retains only a small permanent personnel presence at the
facility, with no ships permanently based there and port calls increasingly
rare in the last years.