Syria updates: Assad in Russia, granted asylum — reports – DW – 12/08/2024

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Assad’s rapid fall carried with it a broader reminder applicable to the Syrian leader’s backer Russia. 

“The events in Syria have made the world realize once again, or at least they should have, that even the most cruel regime may fall and that Russia and its allies can be defeated,” Tusk wrote online. 

EU and NATO member Poland has been a staunch backer of Ukraine, both before and after Tusk’s coalition returned to power in October 2023. It’s also a crucial logistics hub for military aid to its neighbor Ukraine. 

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) war monitor said on Sunday that it had registered a total of 910 deaths since the start of the rebel operation in late November. 

The SOHR said it had “documented, since the launch of the … [rebel] operation on November 27, 910 people killed.” 

It said this tally included 138 civilians, 380 Syrian troops and allied fighters, and 392 rebels. 

The figure pointed to the minimal resistance attacking forces appear to have faced during their advance through Aleppo, Hama and Homs en route to Damascus, although the figure may also be incomplete.

By contrast, estimates vary, but most believe half a million or more have died during the entirety of Syria’s civil war that began after anti-Assad protests in 2011.

Russian media outlets including news agency Tass have reported, citing unnamed Kremlin sources, that Bashar Assad is in Moscow. 

“Assad and members of his family arrived in Moscow. Russia, based on humanitarian considerations, granted them asylum,” Tass quoted an unnamed Kremlin source as saying.

A spokesman for Israel’s IDF military urged residents of several Syrian towns in the demilitarized buffer zone of the Golan Heights near the de facto border to stay indoors. 

“Urgent warning to the residents of southern Syria,” Avichay Adraee wrote in a statement in Arabic, listing five Syrian towns in the buffer zone.

“The fighting inside your area is forcing the IDF to act and we do not intend to harm you. For your safety, you must stay at home and not go out until further notice,” he wrote. 

Defense Minister Israel Katz had earlier said that IDF troops had seized a “buffer zone and control points to ensure the protection of all Israeli communities in the Golan Heights — Jewish and Druze — so that they are not exposed to the threats from the other side.” 

He said the military took this step after Syrian troops abandoned their positions amid the regime collapse.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said “the cruel Assad dictatorship has collapsed” in a response online, but also offered a note of caution. 

“This historic change in the region offers opportunities but is not without risks,” she said. 

“Europe is ready to support safeguarding national unity and rebuilding a Syrian state that protects all minorities,” she said. 

Assad is an Alawite, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, and not a member of the majority Sunni Muslim population in Syria. Around three-quarters of Syria’s population are Sunnis, but the country has meaningful Shiite, Druze and Christian minority populations.

HTS’s leaders have pledged to ensure all minorities are respected under a new regime, but some observers have concerns about the offshoot of an al-Qaeda branch.

Von der Leyen said that officials in Brussels were “engaging with European and regional leaders and monitoring developments.”

Questions over how Syria will be governed after Assad’s fall

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Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha focused on Russia’s role, or rather its reduced role in Syria amid its invasion of Ukraine, when responding to Assad’s fall. 

“Assad has fallen,” Sybiha said online. “This is how it has always been and will always be for dictators who bet on [Russian President Vladimir] Putin. He always betrays those who rely on him.” 

Russian backing, particularly from the skies, had contributed considerably to Assad’s forces reclaiming control of the bulk of the war torn country in recent years. 

But Russia’s military footprint in Syria has reduced amid its invasion of Ukraine. 

Ukraine’s Sybiha called for all efforts to be made “to stabilize the region and ensure inclusive political dialogue in Syria for the sake of effectively functioning state institutions.” 

“We express our readiness to pave the way to restoring relations in the future and reaffirm support for the Syrian people,” he concluded. 

Assad’s Syria had cut diplomatic ties with Ukraine in July 2022, a few months after the war with Russia began.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called for all sides to protect Syrian civilians and ensure aid can reach those in need after Assad’s sudden fall. 

“The developments in Syria in recent hours and days are unprecedented, and we are speaking to our partners in the region and monitoring the situation closely,” Starmer said. 

“The Syrian people have suffered under Assad’s barbaric regime for too long and we welcome his departure. Our focus is now on ensuring a political solution prevails and stability is restored,” he said.

Starmer also joined several other world leaders in urging all sides to “protect civilians and minorities,” as well as ensuring that “essential aid can reach the most vulnerable in the coming hours and days.” 

The head of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) Islamist group, Abu Mohammed al-Golani, said that there is no room for turning back after the fall of Bashar Assad’s regime.

“The future is ours and we are moving toward victory,” al-Golani said in a statement read on Syrian state TV, after arriving in the capital Damascus.

Videos shared on social media purportedly showed al-Golani kneeling down upon arriving in Damascus.

“We continue to work with determination to achieve the goals of our revolution… We are determined to complete the path we started in 2011,” he said.

Syria descended into civil war after a brutal government crackdown on the 2011 pro-democracy protests.

While the war had been considered “frozen” for years, rebel groups made significant advances in a lightning offensive in recent days and then ousted Assad on Sunday.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that Ankara would help ensure Syria’s “unity, integrity and security” following Bashar Assad’s ouster.

“Turkey is ready to take responsibility for all that is necessary to heal Syria’s wounds and guarantee its unity, integrity and security,” Fidan said.

“We will further intensify our work on this matter with countries in the region and with international actors in the coming days,” he said.

Fidan said that he hoped millions of Syrians who were forced to flee the country would be able to return home. Turkey has taken in some 3.5 million Syrian refugees.

In earlier comments at a press conference in Doha, Qatar, Fidan called for Syria’s opposition to remain united and warned against a “desire for revenge.”

Turkey has launched several military incursions into northern Syria throughout the civil war in order to push back the Kurdish YPG militia, which Ankara considers to be a terrorist organization.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the fall of Syria’s Bashar Assad, referring to it as a “historic day.”

He said that Syria was a “central link” in what he described as Iran’s “Axis of Evil.”

The Israeli leader said the fall of the Assad regime was a “direct result of the blows we inflicted on Hezbollah.”

The Hezbollah militant group, which was a close ally of Assad, agreed to withdraw from southern Lebanon over a period of 60 days as part of a ceasefire deal with Israel.

Netanyahu also said that he had ordered Israeli forces to seize areas in a UN buffer zone with Syria. He argued a 1974 disengagement agreement with Syria “has collapsed” and that Syrian forces had abandoned their positions.

“We will not allow any hostile force to establish itself on our borders,” he said.

The buffer zone runs along the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

It comes after news agencies reported Israel had struck a Syrian army weapons depot on the outskirts of Damascus.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry said Tehran would adopt “appropriate approaches and positions” on the events unfolding in Syria.

It said that it would take into account “the behavior and performances of the effective actors.” The Foreign Ministry added that Syrians should decide their country’s future “without destructive, coercive, foreign intervention.”

Tehran had been a major supporter of the Assad government, which fell after rebel groups took control of Damascus.

Rebels stormed the Iranian embassy, which seemed to have been abandoned, earlier on Sunday, with Iranian media reporting that diplomats had evacuated the premises. 

An Israeli airstrike hit a Syrian army weapons depot near the Mazzeh military airport on the outskirts of Damascus.

“Israeli strikes targeted positions of the Fourth Division of the Syrian army near the Mazzeh military airport,” Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor, told the French AFP news agency.

The strike was also reported by the AP news agency.

Israel often does not comment on individual strikes in Syria but has said that it targets Iran-backed groups in the country.

Earlier on Sunday, Israel’s military said it had deployed its forces to a UN-monitored buffer zone with Syria along the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that regarding the situation in Syria, “What matters now is that law and order are quickly restored.”

“The Syrian people have experienced appalling suffering,” Scholz said in a statement. “The end of Assad’s rule over Syria is therefore good news.”

He added that “all religious communities, all minorities must enjoy protection now and in the future.”

“We will judge the future rulers by whether they make it possible for all Syrians to live in dignity and self-determination, defend Syria’s sovereignty against malicious interference by third parties and live in peace with their neighbors,” Scholz said.

French President Emmanuel Macron hailed the fall of Bashar Assad in a post on X.

“The barbaric state has fallen. At last. I pay tribute to the Syrian people, to their courage, to their patience. In this moment of uncertainty, I send them my wishes for peace, freedom, and unity,” he said. 

“France will remain committed to the security of all in the Middle East,” Macron added.