Bashar al-Assad: I did not leave the country “as planned” I left after the fall of the last military positions.
According to Sputnik, the website attributed to the former Syrian presidential institution published a statement by former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The statement, titled “Statement by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on the conditions of his departure from Syria,” was published from Moscow on December 16, 2024, corresponding to Monday, December 26, 1430, and its description is as follows: The spread of terrorism in Syria and its arrival in Damascus on the evening of December 7, 2024, questions began to be raised about the fate of the president and his whereabouts amid a flood of noisy news and untrue narratives. These questions became a supporting factor in the operation to portray international terrorism as the Syrian Revolution of Freedom.
The statement, which is the first stance and statement attributed to Assad after the recent developments, states: The truth must take its place at this historic moment and a turning point in the history of the homeland. Therefore, some points need to be explained through a short statement; points that those conditions and the complete disconnection for security reasons prevented from being expressed. This statement contains brief points and does not relieve us of the need to recount all the details of the events at a later date.
First of all, I would like to say that I did not leave the homeland as planned, as has been rumored, nor did I leave the country during the final hours of the battle, as has been rumored, but rather remained in Damascus and continued to fulfill my responsibilities until the early hours of the morning of Sunday, December 8, 2024. When terrorism reached Damascus, I moved to Latakia in coordination with my Russian friends to follow the combat operations from there.
When I arrived at the Hmeimim base in the morning, it became clear that the forces had retreated from all battle lines and that the last positions of the army had also fallen. With the intensification and deterioration of the field realities in that area and the intensification of drone attacks on this Russian military base, and in light of the impossibility of leaving this base in all directions, Moscow asked the base command to take steps to ensure security and immediately evacuate those present at the base to Russian territory. Accordingly, this action was taken on the evening of Sunday, December 8, the day after the fall of Damascus, and after the fall of the last military positions and the resulting disruptions in the remaining government organs.