Bashar al-Assad confided in almost no person about his plans to wing Syria as his reign collapsed. As an different, aides, officials and even relatives were deceived or kept within the shaded, extra than a dozen participants with records of the events instantaneous Reuters.
Hours sooner than he escaped for Moscow, Assad assured a gathering of about 30 military and safety chiefs at the defence ministry on Saturday that Russian militia toughen became as soon as on its manner and urged ground forces to encourage out, according to a commander who became as soon as recent and requested anonymity to focus on relating to the briefing.
Civilian workers were none the wiser, too.
Assad instantaneous his presidential build of industrial supervisor on Saturday when he carried out work he became as soon as going home but as a exchange headed to the airport, according to an aide in his interior circle.
He additionally called his media adviser, Buthaina Shaaban, and asked her to return to his home to write him a speech, the aide stated. She arrived to hunt down no person became as soon as there.
“Assad did not even compose a closing stand. He did not even rally his dangle troops,” stated Nadim Houri, executive director of the Arab Reform Initiative regional deem-tank. “He let his supporters face their very dangle fate.”
Reuters became as soon as unable to contact Assad in Moscow, the build he has been granted political asylum. Interviews with 14 participants familiar along with his closing days and hours in power paint a characterize of a leader casting spherical for birth air encourage to extend his 24-year rule sooner than leaning on deception and stealth to diagram his exit from Syria within the early hours of Sunday.
Most of the sources, who comprise aides within the gentle president’s interior circle, regional diplomats and safety sources and senior Iranian officials, asked for his or her names to be withheld to freely focus on about sensitive matters.
Assad did not even present his youthful brother, Maher, commander of the Military’s elite 4th Armoured Division, about his exit notion, according to three aides. Maher flew a helicopter to Iraq after which to Russia, one in every of the participants stated.
Assad’s maternal cousins, Ehab and Eyad Makhlouf, were within the same procedure left within the assist of as Damascus fell to the rebels, according to a Syrian aide and Lebanese safety decent. The pair tried to wing by car to Lebanon but were ambushed on the manner by rebels who shot Ehab uninteresting and wounded Eyad, they stated. There became as soon as no decent confirmation of the death and Reuters became as soon as unable to independently test the incident.
Assad himself fled Damascus by plane on Sunday, Dec. 8, flying below the radar with the plane’s transponder switched off, two regional diplomats stated, escaping the clutches of rebels storming the capital. The dramatic exit ended his 24 years of rule and his family’s half of a century of unbroken power, and introduced the 13-year civil battle to an abrupt quit.
He flew to Russia’s Hmeimim airbase within the Syrian coastal city of Latakia, and from there on to Moscow.
Assad’s immediate family, spouse Asma and their three youngsters, were already waiting for him within the Russian capital, according to three gentle shut aides and a senior regional decent.
Movies of Assad’s home, taken by rebels and voters who thronged the presidential complex following his flight and posted on social media, suggest he made a rapid exit, showing cooked food left on the stove and several other personal property left within the assist of, similar to family characterize albums.
RUSSIA AND IRAN: NO MILITARY RESCUE
There could possibly perhaps well be no militia rescue from Russia, whose intervention in 2015 had helped flip the tide of the civil battle in favour of Assad, or from his other staunch ally Iran.
This had been made certain to the Syrian leader within the times main up to his exit, when he sought encourage from diverse quarters in a determined streak to hang to power and loyal his safety, according to the participants interviewed by Reuters.
Assad visited Moscow on Nov. 28, a day after Syrian riot forces attacked the northern province of Aleppo and lightning power loyal by procedure of the nation, but his pleas for militia intervention fell on deaf ears within the Kremlin which became as soon as unwilling to intervene, three regional diplomats stated.
Hadi al-Bahra, the high of Syria’s main opposition in a single other nation, stated that Assad did not elevate the reality of the subject to aides assist home, citing a source within Assad’s shut circle and a regional decent.
“He instantaneous his commanders and colleagues after his Moscow outing that militia toughen became as soon as coming,” Bahra added. “He became as soon as mendacity to them. The message he obtained from Moscow became as soon as detrimental.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov instantaneous journalists on Wednesday that Russia had spent a bunch of effort in serving to stabilise Syria within the past but its priority now became as soon as the battle in Ukraine.
Four days after that outing, on Dec. 2, Iranian International Minister Abbas Araqchi met with Assad in Damascus. By that time, the rebels from the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) Islamist neighborhood had taken encourage a watch on of Syria’s 2d-supreme city Aleppo and were sweeping southwards as authorities forces crumbled.
Assad became as soon as visibly distressed all the procedure by procedure of the meeting, and conceded that his military became as soon as too weakened to mount an efficient resistance, a senior Iranian diplomat instantaneous Reuters.
Assad by no manner requested that Tehran deploy forces in Syria though, according to 2 senior Iranian officials who stated he understood that Israel could possibly possibly also use this kind of intervention as a cause to target Iranian forces in Syria and even Iran itself.
The Kremlin and Russian foreign ministry declined to comment for this text, while the Iranian foreign ministry became as soon as no longer loyal away on hand to comment.
ASSAD CONFRONTS OWN DOWNFALL
After exhausting his alternate choices, Assad finally approved the inevitability of his downfall and resolved to transfer away the nation, ending his family’s dynastic rule which dates assist to 1971.
Three people of Assad’s interior circle stated he at the origin wanted to survey refuge within the United Arab Emirates, as rebels seized Aleppo and Homs and were advancing in direction of Damascus.
They stated he became as soon as rebuffed by the Emiratis who feared an global backlash for harbouring a resolve field to U.S. and European sanctions for allegedly the use of chemical weapons in a crackdown on insurgents, accusations that Assad has rejected as a fabrication.
The UAE authorities did not loyal away acknowledge to a requirement for comment.
Yet Moscow, while unwilling to intervene militarily, became as soon as no longer intriguing to abandon Assad, according to a Russian diplomatic source who spoke on situation of anonymity.
Russia’s International Minister Sergei Lavrov, attending the Doha forum in Qatar on Saturday and Sunday, spearheaded the diplomatic effort to loyal the safety of Assad, collaborating Turkey and Qatar to leverage their connections to HTS to loyal Assad’s safe exit to Russia, two regional officials stated.
One Western safety source stated that Lavrov did “without reference to he could possibly possibly also” to loyal Assad’s safe departure.
Qatar and Turkey made preparations with HTS to facilitate Assad’s exit, three of the sources stated, despite decent claim by each countries they had no contacts with HTS, which is designated by the U.S. and the UN as a terrorist organisation.
Moscow additionally coordinated with neighbouring states to be obvious a Russian plane leaving Syrian airspace with Assad on board wouldn’t be intercepted or centered, three of the sources stated.
Qatar’s foreign ministry did not loyal away acknowledge to queries about Assad’s exit, while Reuters became as soon as unable to reach HTS for comment. A Turkish authorities decent stated there became as soon as no Russian demand to utilize Turkish airspace for Assad’s flight, though did not address whether Ankara worked with HTS to facilitate the smash out.
Assad’s closing top minister, Mohammed Jalali, stated he spoke to his then-president on the cellular telephone on Saturday night at 10.30 pm.
“In our closing call, I instantaneous him how spellbinding the subject became as soon as and that there became as soon as huge displacement (of participants) from Homs toward Latakia … that there became as soon as terror and alarm within the streets,” he instantaneous Saudi-owned Al Arabiya TV this week.
“He responded: ‘Tomorrow, we are in a position to see’,” Jalali added. “‘Tomorrow, day after at present’, became as soon as the closing thing he instantaneous me.”
Jalali stated he tried to call Assad again as smash of day broke on Sunday, but there became as soon as no response.
