AL-AZRAQ, Jordan (Reuters) – Developments in Syria demonstrate that countries with a strategic partnership with Russia can rely on Moscow only as long as they are of use to President Vladimir Putin, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said on Wednesday.
During a short visit to Jordan, Pistorius made a stop-over at the Al-Azraq air base on his way to Baghdad where he will discuss ways to help stabilise the region in the light of the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The minister did not specify what the developments will mean for Germany’s involvement in the region but said that its military missions in the Middle East, which include some 600 troops, would rather be ramped up than reduced.
As part of a U.S.-led coalition of some 70 countries, Germany has had troops in Iraq since 2015 to assist local forces trying to prevent a resurgence of Islamic State which in 2014 seized large swaths of Iraq and Syria but was later pushed back.
The Jordanian base Al-Azraq is used as logistics hub for the mission, and the German air force is launching air-to-air refueling missions from there.
Germany has also deployed some 300 troops to the UNIFIL peacekeeping mission that monitors the demarcation line with Israel, an area that has seen more than a year of hostilities between Israeli troops and Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters.
(Reporting by Sabine Siebold, editing by Madeline Chambers and Thomas Seythal)
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