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Assad courts more Russian support
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Assad would welcome more Russian troops
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Assad suggests Russian bases should be permanent
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Syria supports Putin's war in Ukraine - Assad
(Recasts headline and lead)
By Guy Faulconbridge and Caleb Davis
MOSCOW, March 16 (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad said on Thursday that he would welcome any Russian proposals to set up new military bases and boost troop numbers in the Middle Eastern country, suggesting Russia's military presence there should become permanent.
When Russia intervened in the Syrian Civil War in 2015, it helped tip the balance in Assad's favour, ensuring the Syrian leader's survival despite Western demands that he be toppled.
Assad, who met President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin on Wednesday, has supported Russia's war in Ukraine and told Russia's state news agency RIA that Damascus recognises the territories claimed by Russia in Ukraine.
Syria, Assad said, would welcome any Russian proposals to set up new military bases and boost Russian troop numbers - and said they need not be temporary.
"We think that expanding the Russian presence in Syria is a good thing," Assad told RIA in an interview. "Russia's military presence in any country should not be based on anything temporary."
"We believe that if Russia has the desire to expand bases or increase their number, it is a technical or logistical issue."
Assad's years as president have been defined by the conflict that began in 2011 with peaceful protests before spiralling into a multi-sided conflict that has fractured the Middle Eastern country and drawn in foreign friends and enemies.
He has stitched much of his state back together with the help of Russia and Iran, aided by the fact that his allies were always more committed to his survival than his enemies were to his defeat.
Alongside the Hmeimim air base, from which Russia launches air strikes in support of Assad, Moscow also controls the Tartus naval facility in Syria, its only naval foothold in the Mediterranean, in use since the days of the Soviet Union.
Russia's defence ministry said in January that Russia and Syria had restored the al-Jarrah military air base in Syria's north to be jointly used. The small base east of Aleppo was recaptured from Islamic State fighters in 2017.
In Moscow, Assad thanked Putin for the help Russia had given to Syria after a devastating earthquake and praised the Kremlin chief for his support of Syrian unity.
Syria stood beside Russia on the issue of Ukraine, Assad said.