Bashar al-Assad confided in nearly nobody about his plans to flee Syria as his reign collapsed. Instead, aides, officers and even kin have been deceived or stored at nighttime, greater than a dozen folks with data of the occasions informed Reuters.
Hours earlier than he escaped for Moscow, Assad assured a gathering of about 30 military and safety chiefs on the defence ministry on Saturday that Russian navy assist was on its method and urged floor forces to carry out, in accordance with a commander who was current and requested anonymity to discuss the briefing.
Civilian employees have been none the wiser, too.
Assad informed his presidential workplace supervisor on Saturday when he completed work he was going residence however as an alternative headed to the airport, in accordance with an aide in his internal circle.
He additionally known as his media adviser, Buthaina Shaaban, and requested her to come back to his residence to write down him a speech, the aide mentioned. She arrived to seek out nobody was there.
“Assad did not even make a final stand. He did not even rally his personal troops,” mentioned Nadim Houri, government director of the Arab Reform Initiative regional think-tank. “He let his supporters face their very own destiny.”
Reuters was unable to contact Assad in Moscow, the place he has been granted political asylum. Interviews with 14 folks acquainted with his remaining days and hours in energy paint an image of a frontrunner casting round for out of doors assist to increase his 24-year rule earlier than leaning on deception and stealth to plot his exit from Syria within the early hours of Sunday.
Most of the sources, who embrace aides within the former president’s internal circle, regional diplomats and safety sources and senior Iranian officers, requested for his or her names to be withheld to freely focus on delicate issues.
Assad did not even inform his youthful brother, Maher, commander of the Army’s elite 4th Armoured Division, about his exit plan, in accordance with three aides. Maher flew a helicopter to Iraq after which to Russia, one of many folks mentioned.
Assad’s maternal cousins, Ehab and Eyad Makhlouf, have been equally left behind as Damascus fell to the rebels, in accordance with a Syrian aide and Lebanese safety official. The pair tried to flee by automotive to Lebanon however have been ambushed on the way in which by rebels who shot Ehab useless and wounded Eyad, they mentioned. There was no official affirmation of the demise and Reuters was unable to independently confirm the incident.
Assad himself fled Damascus by airplane on Sunday, Dec. 8, flying below the radar with the plane’s transponder switched off, two regional diplomats mentioned, escaping the clutches of rebels storming the capital. The dramatic exit ended his 24 years of rule and his household’s half a century of unbroken energy, and introduced the 13-year civil struggle to an abrupt halt.
He flew to Russia’s Hmeimim airbase within the Syrian coastal metropolis of Latakia, and from there on to Moscow.
Assad’s rapid household, spouse Asma and their three youngsters, have been already ready for him within the Russian capital, in accordance with three former shut aides and a senior regional official.
Videos of Assad’s residence, taken by rebels and residents who thronged the presidential advanced following his flight and posted on social media, recommend he made a hasty exit, displaying cooked meals left on the range and a number of other private belongings left behind, equivalent to household picture albums.
RUSSIA AND IRAN: NO MILITARY RESCUE
There could be no navy rescue from Russia, whose intervention in 2015 had helped flip the tide of the civil struggle in favour of Assad, or from his different staunch ally Iran.
This had been made clear to the Syrian chief within the days main as much as his exit, when he sought assist from varied quarters in a determined race to cling to energy and safe his security, in accordance with the folks interviewed by Reuters.
Assad visited Moscow on Nov. 28, a day after Syrian insurgent forces attacked the northern province of Aleppo and lightning drive throughout the nation, however his pleas for navy intervention fell on deaf ears within the Kremlin which was unwilling to intervene, three regional diplomats mentioned.
Hadi al-Bahra, the top of Syria’s most important opposition overseas, mentioned that Assad did not convey the truth of the state of affairs to aides again residence, citing a supply inside Assad’s shut circle and a regional official.
“He informed his commanders and associates after his Moscow journey that navy assist was coming,” Bahra added. “He was mendacity to them. The message he acquired from Moscow was unfavourable.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov informed reporters on Wednesday that Russia had spent loads of effort in serving to stabilise Syria up to now however its precedence now was the battle in Ukraine.
Four days after that journey, on Dec. 2, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi met with Assad in Damascus. By that point, the rebels from the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) Islamist group had taken management of Syria’s second-largest metropolis Aleppo and have been sweeping southwards as authorities forces crumbled.
Assad was visibly distressed through the assembly, and conceded that his military was too weakened to mount an efficient resistance, a senior Iranian diplomat informed Reuters.
Assad by no means requested that Tehran deploy forces in Syria although, in accordance with two senior Iranian officers who mentioned he understood that Israel may use any such intervention as a motive to focus on Iranian forces in Syria and even Iran itself.
The Kremlin and Russian overseas ministry declined to remark for this text, whereas the Iranian overseas ministry was not instantly out there to remark.
ASSAD CONFRONTS OWN DOWNFALL
After exhausting his choices, Assad lastly accepted the inevitability of his downfall and resolved to go away the nation, ending his household’s dynastic rule which dates again to 1971.
Three members of Assad’s internal circle mentioned he initially wished to hunt refuge within the United Arab Emirates, as rebels seized Aleppo and Homs and have been advancing in the direction of Damascus.
They mentioned he was rebuffed by the Emiratis who feared a global backlash for harbouring a determine topic to U.S. and European sanctions for allegedly utilizing chemical weapons in a crackdown on insurgents, accusations that Assad has rejected as a fabrication.
The UAE authorities did not instantly reply to a request for remark.
Yet Moscow, whereas unwilling to intervene militarily, was not ready to desert Assad, in accordance with a Russian diplomatic supply who spoke on situation of anonymity.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, attending the Doha discussion board in Qatar on Saturday and Sunday, spearheaded the diplomatic effort to safe the protection of Assad, partaking Turkey and Qatar to leverage their connections to HTS to safe Assad’s protected exit to Russia, two regional officers mentioned.
One Western safety supply mentioned that Lavrov did “no matter he may” to safe Assad’s protected departure.
Qatar and Turkey made preparations with HTS to facilitate Assad’s exit, three of the sources mentioned, regardless of official declare by each international locations that they’d no contacts with HTS, which is designated by the U.S. and the U.N. as a terrorist organisation.
Moscow additionally coordinated with neighbouring states to make sure that a Russian airplane leaving Syrian airspace with Assad on board wouldn’t be intercepted or focused, three of the sources mentioned.
Qatar’s overseas ministry did not instantly reply to queries about Assad’s exit, whereas Reuters was unable to achieve HTS for remark. A Turkish authorities official mentioned there was no Russian request to make use of Turkish airspace for Assad’s flight, although did not deal with whether or not Ankara labored with HTS to facilitate the escape.
Assad’s final prime minister, Mohammed Jalali, mentioned he spoke to his then-president on the telephone on Saturday night time at 10.30 pm.
“In our final name, I informed him how troublesome the state of affairs was and that there was big displacement (of individuals) from Homs towards Latakia … that there was panic and horror within the streets,” he informed Saudi-owned Al Arabiya TV this week.
“He replied: ‘Tomorrow, we’ll see’,” Jalali added. “‘Tomorrow, tomorrow’, was the very last thing he informed me.”
Jalali mentioned he tried to name Assad once more as daybreak broke on Sunday, however there was no response.
