Former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has stated that he had no plans to flee Syria before being evacuated by the Russian Army following the attack on his base in the west of the country. In his first statements since the fall of his regime, Assad has said he had planned to continue fighting insurgent forces.
“At no time did I consider resigning or seeking refuge, nor did any person make such a proposal. The only plan was to continue fighting against the terrorist onslaught,” he said in a statement published on the Telegram channel belonging to the Syrian presidency and dated December 16.
In the statement, Assad maintains that he left Damascus on December 8 in the face of the insurgents’ siege and moved to the Russian-controlled Khmeimim air base in the province of Latakia, “to supervise combat operations.”
“Upon arriving at the air base that morning, it was clear that our forces had completely withdrawn from all battle lines and that the last Army positions had fallen,” he added.
Assad claimed he was evacuated to Russia after the air base “was itself the target of an intensified drone attack.”
“With no viable means to leave the base, Moscow asked the enclave command to organize an immediate evacuation to Russia on the night of Sunday, December 8,” the statement said.
Assad appeared to reject media reports that his aides and relatives were misled and ignored his plans to flee to Moscow. “Firstly, my departure from Syria was not planned nor did it occur during the final hours of the fighting, as some have claimed,” he declared.
In his statement, Assad also sought to reject reports and images of his family’s corruption, which has come to light in greater detail since he fled Syria.
“I reaffirm that the person who, from the first day of the war, refused to negotiate the salvation of his nation for personal benefits, or to compromise his people in exchange for numerous offers, is the same one who stood alongside the officers and soldiers of the army on the front, a few meters from the terrorists on the most dangerous battlefields,” he stated.
Assad’s exact whereabouts in Russia remain uncertain, and he has not yet been photographed in the country. His family has long maintained ties to Moscow, and relatives have transferred millions of dollars to Russia over the years.
Vladimir Putin has yet to comment on the fall of his close ally, and the fate of two key Russian military bases in Syria is unclear.
Over the weekend, video footage showed a column of nearly 100 military vehicles leaving the Damascus area, including armored vehicles. However, it is not clear whether this is a total or partial evacuation.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov told reporters on Monday: “There is no decision on this. “We are in contact with representatives of the forces that now control the country.”
Meanwhile, the United Nations envoy for Syria was visiting Damascus on Monday, where he told the Islamist militants who toppled Assad that they need to oversee a “credible and inclusive” transition.
Geir Pedersen, a Norwegian diplomat, met with the Syrian rebel leader. Ahmed al-Sharaa, formerly known by his nom de guerre, Abu Mohamed al-Jolani, and the interim prime minister, Mohamed al-Bashir.
A statement issued by Pedersen’s office said the envoy had offered UN support and stressed “the need for a credible and inclusive political transition led and controlled by Syrians.”
Diplomats have been fighting to influence the government that replaces the Assad regime.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said she had instructed the EU’s top diplomat for Syria to travel to Damascus on Monday to contact the new government.
Iran and Russia, which backed Assad in the 13-year Syrian Civil War, will have lost influence, while Turkey and some Gulf countries will try to take advantage of their active support for anti-Assad rebels. Western countries largely supported the opposition at the beginning of the civil war, but wavered when Islamist groups, such as the now-dominant Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), became prominent.
Neighboring Israel has also sought to take advantage of the power vacuum to weaken any future Syrian administration, carrying out hundreds of attacks on arsenals of strategic weapons and equipment. Israeli troops have seized land on the border.
On Monday, a UK-based Syria observatory said Israeli airstrikes had hit missile depots in what it called “the most violent strikes in the Syrian coastal region” in more than a decade.
Sharaa has said he is not interested in a conflict with Israel. “There are no excuses for any foreign intervention in Syria now that the Iranians are gone. “We are not in the process of entering into conflict with Israel,” he told Syrian state media.
Pedersen flew to Damascus directly after an international meeting in Aqaba, Jordan, where senior diplomats from Arab states, the United States, Turkey, France, Germany and Britain met on Saturday to agree on what they said would be a “more hopeful, safe and peaceful” for Syrians.
The statement from the envoy’s office on Monday stated that the “transitional political process” must “produce an inclusive, non-sectarian and representative government.”
Syria’s new rulers have sought to assure the country’s minorities that they will be protected and included. However, there are concerns that the interim administration led by the HTS, made up largely of fighters from Syria’s Sunni majority, may sideline large minority populations, including Shia Muslims, Druze, Alawites and Christians.
To help the Syrian economy, Pedersen has called on the US, UK and EU to end sanctions imposed on the country when Assad was in power. To do this, they would have to remove HTS, which emerged as a branch of Al Qaeda, from their lists of “terrorist” organizations.
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