DAMASCUS — Ousted Syrian President Bashar Assad mentioned in an announcement Monday he needed to remain within the nation after rebels captured the capital Damascus per week in the past, however the Russian army evacuated him from their base in western Syria after it got here underneath assault.
The feedback are the primary by Assad since he was overthrown by jihadi-led rebel teams simply over per week in the past.
Assad mentioned in an announcement on his Fb web page that he left Damascus on the morning of Dec. 8, hours after insurgents stormed the capital. He mentioned he left in coordination with Russian allies to their Hmeimim air base within the coastal province of Latakia, the place he had deliberate to maintain preventing.
Assad mentioned that after the Russian base got here underneath assault by drones, the Russians determined to maneuver him on the night time of Dec. 8 to Russia.
“I didn’t depart the nation as a part of a plan because it was reported earlier,” Assad mentioned.
“At no level throughout these occasions did I take into account stepping down or searching for refuge nor was such proposal made by any particular person or celebration,” Assad mentioned within the English textual content of his assertion. “The one plan of action was to proceed preventing towards the terrorist onslaught.”
Obeida Arnaout, spokesman for the political division of the brand new transitional authorities fashioned by the previous insurgents, mentioned in an interview Monday that with the Syrian factions getting into Damascus, “the Assad regime is completed with no return” and that Russia “ought to rethink its presence on Syrian territory in addition to its pursuits.”
Arnaout mentioned Syria has entered a new phase that can be open to the world, and its new authorities is seeking to construct good relations with its neighbors and the world. He known as on the U.S. and different international locations to rethink the designation of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham — the primary insurgent group and a former affiliate of al-Qaida — as a terrorist group, calling it “not proper and never correct” designation.
Syria is dwelling to a number of ethnic and non secular communities, usually pitted towards one another by Assad’s state and years of warfare. A lot of them concern the likelihood that Sunni Islamist extremists will take over.
The brand new Syrian management had already been in touch with the U.S. to return American citizen Travis Timmerman, who was among the many prisoners released from government detention centers when Assad fell, Arnaout mentioned.
“There are political contacts on the highest ranges in a means that advantages the Syrian individuals’s and that strengthen the present administration,” he mentioned.
Requested whether or not the brand new authorities’s safety forces would cooperate with the U.S. to fight militants with the Islamic State group, Arnaout mentioned Syrian factions have ousted and rejected IS and the group now not has a major presence within the nation.
U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led forces in northeast Syria have been the primary U.S. ally in preventing IS, and oversee detention facilities housing IS militants. Nonetheless, the way forward for the Kurds and the semi-autonomous area they management stays unclear within the nation’s new post-Assad order. Clashes over territory have taken place in some areas between Kurdish forces and the armed teams that overthrew Assad.
Arnaout mentioned the Kurds are a part of the Syrian individuals and their rights can be protected. Nonetheless, he mentioned the brand new authorities won’t settle for that any a part of Syria be outdoors of Damascus’ management.
“Kurds are one of many elements of the Syrian individuals and we’re very eager that this group has its rights protected,” he mentioned. “The social material in Syria is a supply of power and never weak point. However we affirm that we don’t any a part of Syria to be separated, and we won’t permit that any a part of Syria be out of the Damascus authorities management.”
Additionally Monday, a U.Okay.-based warfare monitor mentioned Israeli airstrikes early Monday hit missile warehouses on the Syrian coast and known as it the “most violent strikes” in that a part of Syria since 2012.
Israel has been pounding what it says are army websites in Syria after the dramatic collapse of Assad’s rule, wiping out air defenses and many of the arsenal of the previous Syrian military. Israeli troops have additionally seized a border buffer zone, sparking condemnation, with critics accusing Israel of violating the 1974 ceasefire and probably exploiting the chaos in Syria for a land seize.
