Russian operator of Syria's Tartous port dismisses reports it has lost its contract

By Gleb Stolyarov

(Reuters) - STG Engineering, a Russian company that operates Syria's Tartous commercial port, said on Friday that it was continuing to work as usual and that its contract had not been annulled as some media in the Middle East had suggested.

Three Syrian businessmen and media reports suggested in January that Syria's new ruling administration had cancelled the contract that was signed under former President Bashar al-Assad, who fled to Moscow in December after a lightning rebel offensive.

Semi-official Syrian newspaper Al-Watan at the time quoted the head of Tartous customs, Riad Joudy, as saying that the port investment contract had been annulled after the Russian firm had failed to fulfil the terms of the 2019 deal, which stipulated investment in infrastructure.

But Dmitry Trifonov, CEO of Moscow-based STG Engineering, told Reuters on Friday his company was still managing the port and that nobody had told them their contract had been annulled, a process he said would be lengthy and bureaucratic if it happened.

"It is impossible to terminate the agreement unilaterally, because it has been ratified by both the president and the parliament, and no one has notified us," said Trifonov.

"It has to go through the parliament and the president. Any statements have no legitimate basis because the cancellation of the presidential decree and ratification by the previous parliament is a whole procedure. What someone is saying now is just words."

Media reports about the port contract had previously referred to the Russian operator as being STG Stroytransgaz, a major construction company.

When contacted about its role on Friday, Stroytransgaz said in a statement that it could not comment on the matter.

"JSC Stroytransgaz is a construction holding company and neither organisationally nor legally had, or has, anything to do with the company STG Engineering, with which the Tartous port management contract was concluded," it said.

Separately, Russia, whose troops and air force backed Assad for years against Syrian rebels, is in talks with Syria's new authorities in an effort to retain its naval base in Tartous and its Hmeimim air base near the port city of Latakia.

The Tartous facility is Russia's only Mediterranean repair and replenishment hub, and Moscow has used Syria as a staging post to fly its military contractors in and out of Africa.

(Reporting by Gleb Stolyarov; Writing by Andrew Osborn; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)