Syrian dictator Assad issues first statement since he was toppled

Former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has issued his first statement since he was deposed by rebel groups and fled to Russia less than two weeks ago. Assad, speaking from Moscow where he sought refuge, said that ‘at no time during the events that have taken place in Syria’ did he intend to step down or flee, adding that he remained in Damascus until the last possible moment. He claimed to have left the capital for Russia’s Hmeimim air base near Latakia in the early hours of December 8, shortly before Islamist rebels from Ha’yat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and other militias seized the city. 

In a statement released via the Syrian Presidential Telegram channel, Assad said he was addressing ‘a flood of misinformation and narratives far removed from the truth’. ‘My departure from Syria was neither planned nor during the final hours of the battles, as some claim. I remained in Damascus, carrying out my duties until the early hours of Sunday, December 8, 2024. ‘At no point did I consider stepping down or seeking refuge, nor was such a proposal made by any individual or party. The only course of action was to continue fighting against the terrorist onslaught,’ Assad declared.

He said he was forced to leave Syria when Hmeimim air base came under drone attack, prompting Moscow to order his evacuation. Assad portrayed himself as a devoted leader and family man who remained ‘alongside his people’ throughout the civil war—even as his forces, allied with Russia, Hezbollah, and Iranian-backed militias, were responsible for thousands of deaths. ‘I have never sought positions for personal gain but have always considered myself a custodian of a national project, supported by the faith of the Syrian people,’ he insisted. He concluded by expressing ‘hope that Syria will once again be free and independent.’

Assad’s last-ditch evacuation from Syria saw him board his private jet and head for Russia’s Hmeimim air base on the country’s west coast using a ‘transponder trick’. Flight-tracking website Flightradar24 showed how the presidential plane believed to be carrying Assad left Damascus airport in the early hours of Sunday morning. The plane headed towards the Mediterranean Sea before making a U-turn and disappearing from the map, presumably as pilots turned off the transponder that tracks flights and reports their position to air traffic control. Assad’s jet is said to have landed at the Moscow-controlled airbase, where he swiftly transferred onto a Russian military jet and left his war-torn nation behind, heading for refuge in the Russian capital.

Now, as Assad stews in Moscow, Islamist rebel group HTS is setting about bringing Syria under control, establishing a transition government and working to roll out aid and services to civilians. Last week, HTS took to state television to announce Mohammad al-Bashir – the head of the group’s so-called ‘Salvation Government’ in Syria’s northwest Idlib province – as interim Prime Minister of a transitional cabinet that will remain in place until March 1. But the seemingly stable beginnings of the transition government belie what is unfolding elsewhere across Syria.

There are makings of a new civil war in the north as Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) militants streamed into Kurdish-held areas. Widespread reports claimed the SNA was ransacking Kurdish homes while shocking videos emerged that appeared to show Turkish-aligned rebels executing wounded Kurdish soldiers as they lay in hospital beds in the town of Manbij. Meanwhile, Israel conducted widespread airstrikes and bombing campaigns designed to demolish the weapons stockpiles and military hardware left behind by regime forces, while advancing troops and tanks far into the buffer zone separating Syria from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Other reports claim ISIS fighters captured and executed Syrian government forces as they fled the HTS onslaught through the Homs desert last week. Russia’s deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov claimed over the weekend that Assad was transported out of Syria ‘in the most secure way possible’. Speaking to NBC News, Mr Ryabkov said: ‘He [Assad] is secured, and it shows that Russia acts as required in such an extraordinary situation.’ When asked if Moscow would hand Assad over to the International Criminal Court, he implied they would not, saying Russia ‘is not party to the convention’ that established it.

Human rights groups have previously accused Assad of war crimes, including the use of chemical weapons on civilians. Explaining why Russia helped Assad escape, Ryabkov said he ‘was accused by the same group of countries and governments that continuously defeat attempts to live their own ways as it happened in Iraq , in Libya and in many more’ in a pointed reference to Western powers. Russia’s military might was instrumental in propping up the Assad regime throughout the 2010s, as Syrian government forces struggled to repel rebel advances.

Vladimir Putin launched a military intervention in Syria in 2015, when Russia’s air force and ground troops aided Syrian government forces along with Hezbollah and a patchwork of Iranian-backed militias. In the course of this intervention, Russia built up a considerable military infrastructure in Syria, the jewels of which are the Hmeimim air base near the city of Latakia and a naval facility in Tartus, which is Russia’s only Mediterranean naval hub.

Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s press secretary, told the international press this weekend that Russia was in contact with HTS and rebel groups in Syria regarding its military bases there. He said: ‘We, of course, maintain contacts with those who are currently controlling the situation in Syria,’ Peskov said in a conference call with reporters, but gave no further information.

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