Assad’s wife was born in Britain and is now in Russia.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Monday that it is too early to say whether the UK will strip the wife of ousted President Bashar Assad of her British citizenship, The Guardian reported, writes TASR.
The opposition claims that Asma is complicit in things committed by the Assad government
Assad’s wife was born and educated in Britain. Her original profession is investment banker. After she married Asad, she started to devote herself to charity projects. She was the patron of the program called Obete vlasti, which aims to ensure and provide rehabilitation to war veterans so that they can return to normal life. Opposition activists have argued for years that Asma Assad is complicit in the atrocities committed by the Assad government during Syria’s civil war.
Assad fled Syria on Sunday before rebel forces advancing towards Damascus. Together with his family, he received asylum in Russia and is located in Moscow.
At the same time, the United Kingdom announced that it would decide whether to remove the Syrian rebel Organization for the Liberation of the Levant (Hayat Tahrir al-Sham – HTS) from the list of terrorist organizations based on an assessment of its actions.
HTS is the leading force in an alliance of rebel forces that launched a blitzkrieg offensive against government forces loyal to Assad in late November, taking many major cities in quick succession and finally Damascus on Sunday.
British Intergovernmental Relations Minister Pat McFadden admitted on Monday that Britain could reconsider the original inclusion of the jihadist HTS among the banned organizations.
As a former al-Qaeda affiliate, HTS is listed as a terrorist group in the UK. In Britain, as in other Western countries, including the US, it is illegal to support or join it.
The Guardian noted that the founder of HTS, Abu Muhammad Jawlani, was once a participant in the Iraqi insurgency against the US as a member of the group that subsequently transformed into the Islamic State.
