Kremlin: ‘Assad himself decided to step aside’
Rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham has captured the Syrian capital Damascus and overthrown Assad's regime. The Syrian president fled to Russia. The leader of the rebel group that has taken power in Syria is Abu Mohammad al-Golani.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad fled by plane and arrived in Moscow on Sunday evening. Assad and his family are said to have sought asylum there. They would have been granted this for ‘humanitarian reasons,’ according to state news agency Ria Novosti.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, meanwhile, declared that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad himself had taken the decision to resign from office. In any case, this Russian claim that Assad stepped down entirely of his own accord does not match the facts. A rebel alliance, led by Islamist Hayat Tharir al-Sham, ousted him from power on Sunday.
Until March 2025, Mohammed al-Bashir will already head the government in Syria. So reports several local media. Al-Bashir will form a small government, focusing on serving the Syrian people.
(FVDV for Tagtik/Source: Reuters - BBC News - CNN/Illustration picture by Kremlin.ru via Wikimedia Commons licensed under CC by 4.0))