Syrian former president Bashar al-Assad breaks silence after being deposed – reports

Syria’s former president Bashar al-Assad has spoken for the first time since rebels took over the country, denying he ever “planned” to leave Damascus.

Deposed former dictator Bashar al-Assad has claimed he never wanted to leave Syria despite fleeing to Russia when rebels took power earlier this month, according to a social media account that his office set up.

He added that he left the war torn country due to “Moscow’s request”.

“My departure from Syria was neither planned nor did it occur during the final hours of the battles, as some have claimed,” said a statement on the Syrian presidency’s Telegram channel on Monday.

It’s not clear if Assad still controls the Syrian presidency’s social media accounts. But if he does, the statement would be the first time the former president – who ruled for 24 years – has broken his silence since he was deposed.

He is now holed up in Russia after his ally Vladimir Putin granted him swift asylum.

Assad’s regime came to an end on 8 December when Sunni Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) rebels stormed into the capital Damascus.

Australia, and many other countries, including the US, UK and Russia, consider HTS to be a terrorist organisation. Although several of these same nations have made diplomatic contacts with the group.

Former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in 2008. (Photo by Louai BESHARA / AFP)

Assad’s defiant statement

In the statement purported to be from Assad, he said he left Damascus just before it fell to the rebels.

“I remained in Damascus, carrying out my duties until the early hours of Sunday 8th December 2024,” the statement in Arabic and English read.

He initially went to the Hmeimim air base, currently operated by Russia, which is in north west Syria close to the Mediterranean Sea

A defaced portrait of ousted Syrian president Bashar al-Assad stands in a ransacked government security facility, in Damascus, on December 8, 2024. (Photo by Rami al SAYED / AFP)

‘Moscow’s request’

The statement said Assad went to “to oversee combat operations” but found Syrian troops had already left.

The base then came under “intensified attack by drone strikes”.

“With no viable means of leaving the base, Moscow requested that the base’s command arrange an immediate evacuation to Russia on the evening of Sunday 8th December,” the statement said.

“This took place a day after the fall of Damascus, following the collapse of the final military positions and the resulting paralysis of all remaining state institutions.

“At no point during these events did I consider stepping down or seeking refuge, nor was such a proposal made by any individual or party,” it added.

“The only course of action was to continue fighting against the terrorist onslaught.”

A protester cheers as she holds a Syrian independence-era flag during a rally in support of the Syrian people and in celebration of the December 8, 2024, fall of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, at the Place de la Republique, in Paris, on December 14, 2024. (Photo by Xavier GALIANA / AFP)

But the Assad statement continued that his position as president became “void of purpose,” because the state had fallen, “into the hands of terrorism and the ability to make a meaningful contribution is lost”.

Despite Putin’s warm relations with Assad he has apparently not met the former Syrian president in Moscow despite the city being his new home.

Aside from the air base it controls in Syria, Russia also makes use of a nearby Syrian port. These are Russia’s only overseas military installations and the Kremlin is keen to keep hold of them even with a new regime in Damascus.

Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad on July 24, 2024. Putin has reportedly not met with Assad despite him now being in Moscow. (Photo by Valery SHARIFULIN / POOL / AFP).

As HTS has consolidated its control in Damascus, Israel has continued to pound Syria’s military compounds.

On Monday, a Syrian war monitor said Israeli strikes had targeted military sites in the coastal Tartus region – close to a part Russia uses – as experts report the impact was so large it registered on Turkish earthquake sensors.

“Israeli warplanes launched strikes” targeting a series of sites including air defence units and “surface-to-surface missile depots”, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), in what it said were “the heaviest strikes in Syria’s coastal region since the start of strikes in 2012”.

Israel has not yet confirmed if it was behind the Tartus bombing. Its government said last week it had hit 480 sites in two days targeting strategic weapon stockpiles.

Originally published as Syrian former president Bashar al-Assad breaks silence after being deposed – reports