Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, July 24, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Ousted Syrian leader Bashar Assad says he had no plans to leave the country after the fall of Damascus a week ago but the Russian military evacuated him after their base in western Syria came under attack.

The comments are the first by Assad since he was overthrown by insurgent groups.

Assad said in a statement on his Facebook page that he left Damascus on the morning of Dec 8, hours after insurgents stormed the capital. He said he left in coordination with Russian allies to the Russian base in the coastal province of Latakia, where he planned to keep fighting.

Assad said that after the Russian base came under attack by drones, the Russians decided to move him on the night of Dec 8 to Russia. “I did not leave the country as part of a plan as it was reported earlier,” Assad said.

“At no point during these events did I consider stepping down or seeking refuge nor was such proposal made by any individual or party,” Assad said in the English text of his statement. “The only course of action was to continue fighting against the terrorist onslaught.”

U.N. Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen attends a meeting with the foreign ministers of the Arab Contact Group on Syria in Jordan’s southern Red Sea coastal city of Aqaba on December 14, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

The United Nations special envoy for Syria on Sunday (December 15, 2024) called for a quick end to Western sanctions after the ouster of President Bashar Assad.

The Syrian government has been under strict sanctions by the United States, European Union and others for years as a result of Assad’s brutal response to what began as peaceful anti-government protests in 2011 and later spiralled into a civil war.

The conflict has killed nearly half a million people and displaced half the country’s pre-war population of 23 million. Rebuilding has been stymied to a large degree by sanctions that aimed to prevent rebuilding of damaged infrastructure and property in government-held areas in the absence of a political solution.

“We can hopefully see a quick end to the sanctions so that we can see really a rallying around building of Syria,” U.N. envoy Geir Pedersen told reporters during a visit to Damascus.

Mr. Pedersen came to the Syrian capital to meet with officials with the new interim government set up by the former opposition forces who toppled Assad, led by the Islamic militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS.

HTS is designated a terrorist group by the U.S., which could also complicate reconstruction efforts, but officials in Washington have indicated that the Biden administration is considering removing the designation.

The interim government is set to govern until March, but it has not yet made clear the process under which a new permanent administration would replace it.

“We need to get the political process underway that is inclusive of all Syrians,” Mr. Pedersen said. “That process obviously needs to be led by the Syrians themselves.”

He called for “justice and accountability for crimes” committed during the war and for the international community to step up humanitarian aid.