The deposed Syrian president, Bashar al Assad, who reappeared this Monday in Moscow for nine days, has denied having betrayed the army and people of Syria by leaving the country on December 8.
President “cannot be a person who renounces the people to which he belongs or who betrays him and his Army,” Assad said in a statement published by his press office on Telegram in his first official statement after his overthrow.
Furthermore, he added: “During the last events I did not once consider the possibility of resigning or requesting asylum in another country nor did I receive any proposal in this regard.” The document, dated in Moscow on December 16, is titled “Explanation by President Bashar al Assad on the circumstances that led him to leave Syria.”
Al Assad, who had ruled his country since the death of his father, Hafez, in 2000, stressed that he intended to “continue the fight against the advance of terrorists.” However, he added, “when the State falls into the hands of terrorists, any position loses meaning.”
“Upon arriving at the (Russian) Jemimim base I learned that our troops had abandoned all their positions,” he said. Thus, he highlighted that the situation in the vicinity of the air base deteriorated rapidly, since said facility “was the subject of a massive drone attack.”
For this reason, “Moscow demanded that the base command evacuate him immediately” to Russia. “My deep sense of belonging to the country and the Syrian people gives me hope that Syria will once again be a free and independent country,” he said.
As reported by a Kremlin source to local agencies, Al Assad received asylum in Russia on December 8, but since then he has not appeared publicly nor have images of him and his family been released in this country.
