The official account of the Syrian presidential palace on the encrypted messaging app Telegram on Monday published a statement attributed to deposed Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, who voluntarily resigned as the country's leader. He insisted that he had not abandoned his soldiers.
A person identified as Assad said in a statement: “During these events, I did not at any point consider stepping down or evacuating, nor was there any such suggestion from any individual or political party.'' ' he claimed. The only course of action was to continue fighting the terrorist onslaught. ”
President Assad is believed to be in Moscow, Russia, after fleeing the country late on December 7 or early in the morning on December 8. President Assad fled as a jihadist with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an al-Qaeda terrorist group. Damascus disbands Syrian army with minimal fighting. HTS emerged victorious in the Syrian civil war between Assad and several rebel groups that began in 2011, but in 2017, Assad's crushing campaign against the rebels was enabled by Russia and Iran. After that, it seemed like it was almost over.
On December 8, President Assad “resigned” from his position as president and left the country, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry. The Kremlin later acknowledged that Russian strongman Vladimir Putin granted him political asylum and that Assad had chosen to step down voluntarily.
telegram statement People claiming to be allies of the Assad regime deny that President Assad has left office and call all other claims “misinformation.”
“My departure from Syria was neither planned nor happened in the final hours of the fighting, as some have claimed,” the statement said. “On the contrary, I remained in Damascus and carried out my mission until the early morning hours of Sunday, December 8, 2024.”
“Due to the infiltration of terrorist forces into Damascus, I moved to Latakia in coordination with our Russian allies to supervise combat operations,” the statement continued. “Upon arrival at Hmeimim Air Base that morning, it became clear that our forces had completely withdrawn from all fronts and the last military positions had collapsed.”
The person calling himself Assad described himself as “someone who, from the first day of the war, refused to exchange the salvation of the homeland for personal gain or to compromise the people in exchange for numerous offers and temptations.” said. He went on to say that he could not abandon his soldiers, saying, “During the darkest moments of the war, I did not leave my homeland, I remained with my family and my people, and I was attacked by terrorists under shelling and repeated attacks on the capital.'' “We stood up to the threat of intrusion,” he said. Fourteen years of war. ”
He argued that the record proves that Assad “cannot be the kind of person who would abandon his people, betray his army or his country.”
The statement asserted that Assad had lost power, claiming that his position as president was “null and void” because the country had fallen “in the hands of terrorism” and Assad had lost the “ability to make a meaningful contribution.” He concluded with a look of approval. ”
“This in no way undermines my deep sense of belonging to Syria and its people, a bond that is unshakable no matter the position or situation. It’s a property,” the person who identified himself as Assad concluded.
The Telegram statement was published with a bizarre caption claiming that Telegram was a last resort after President Assad repeatedly unsuccessfully asked Arabic media for an announcement.
The suggestion that Assad's last hours in Syria had been distorted by “misinformation” appears to be a reference to reports that Assad had abandoned his army. Friday, Reuters reported “Aides, officials and even relatives were deceived and kept in the dark until they left the country,” he said of the Assad family's abandonment of the country.
“Hours before fleeing to Moscow, President Assad assured a meeting of about 30 military and security chiefs at the Defense Ministry on Saturday that Russian military support was on the way,” Reuters reported. reported. The commander was present but requested anonymity to discuss the briefing. ”
The Russian government's statements on the development of the situation, in the first days of the rise of HTS, the closest to any significant contact with the Assad regime, indicate that Assad was not in command of the army until wartime and chose to flee. It suggests that it did. The last moment. Putin's top spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said Assad had chosen to resign voluntarily and that Russia had not pressured him to do so. He also said Putin offered him asylum because “Russia does not betray its friends even in difficult circumstances.”
Russia's Foreign Ministry also claimed that Assad had left instructions for a “peaceful transition of power,” contradicting claims on Monday that he had not resigned.
