DAMASCUS (AP) — Ousted Syrian leader Bashar Assad said Monday he wanted to stay in the country after rebels captured the capital, but the Russian military evacuated him from their base in western Syria after it came under attack.
They were Assad’s first public comments since he was overthrown by insurgent groups just over a week ago following a swift offensive that has shaken up the country’s alliances and led to celebrations in a nation long stifled by civil war.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for the new transitional government told The Associated Press that the new Syria will be inclusive and open to the world.
Assad said on Facebook 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 their Hmeimim air base in the coastal province of Latakia, where he had planned to keep fighting.
AP AUDIO: Syria’s ousted leader Assad says he wanted to keep fighting but Russian allies evacuated him AP correspondent Karen Chammas reports on what ousted Syrian President Bashar Assad is saying about his departure.
But after the Russian base came under attack by drones, he said, the Russians decided to move him that night to Russia.
“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.”
In Damascus, residents dismissed Assad’s comments and some said he had abandoned Syria’s people long ago.
“Is he going to run away from us? He still won’t be able to run away from God,” said one resident, Moataz al-Ahmed, as children stepped on a fallen statue of Assad’s father, Hafez, who had begun the family’s half-century rule.
The spokesman for the transitional government’s political department said in an interview Monday that “the Assad regime is finished with no return” and Russia “should reconsider its presence on Syrian territory as well as its interests.”
The spokesman, Obeida Arnaout, told the AP that Syria has entered a new phase that will be open to the world, and the new government is looking to build good relations with its neighbors and beyond.
He also called on the U.S. and other countries to reconsider the designation of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham — the main rebel group and a former al-Qaida affiliate — as a terrorist organization, calling it “not right and not accurate” designation.
Already, the U.S. has said its officials have been in direct contact with the group.
Syria is home to multiple ethnic and religious communities, often pitted against each other by Assad’s state and years of war. Many of them fear the possibility that Sunni Islamist extremists will take over.
The new leadership also has been in contact with the U.S. to return American citizen Travis Timmerman, who was among the prisoners released from government detention centers when Assad fell, Arnaout said.
“There are political contacts at the highest levels in a way that benefits the Syrian people and that strengthen the current administration,” he said.
Asked whether the new government’s security forces would cooperate with the U.S. to combat remaining militants with the Islamic State group, Arnaout said Syrian factions have ousted and rejected IS and the group no longer has a significant presence in the country.
U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led forces in northeast Syria have been the main U.S. ally in fighting IS and oversee detention centers housing IS militants. However, the future of the Kurds and the semi-autonomous region they control is unclear in the country’s new post-Assad order. Clashes over territory have taken place in some areas between Kurdish forces and the armed groups that overthrew Assad.
Arnaout said the Kurds are part of the Syrian people and their rights will be protected. However, he said the new government will not accept that any part of Syria be outside of Damascus’ control.
“Kurds are one of the components of the Syrian people and we are very keen that this group has its rights protected,” he said. “The social fabric in Syria is a source of strength and not weakness. But we affirm that we don’t any part of Syria to be separated.”
The U.N. envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, said Monday he met with HTS leader Ahmed al-Sharaa and was briefed on the challenges and priorities of the Syrian people going forward. Pederson has called for the lifting of international sanctions on Syria to allow for faster rebuilding.
Meanwhile, a U.K.-based war monitor said Israeli airstrikes early Monday hit missile warehouses on the Syrian coast and called it the “most violent strikes” in that part of Syria since 2012.
Israel has been pounding with hundreds of airstrikes what it says are military sites in Syria after the dramatic collapse of Assad’s rule, wiping out air defenses and most of the arsenal of the former Syrian army.
Israeli troops have also seized a border buffer zone, sparking condemnation, with critics accusing Israel of violating the 1974 ceasefire and possibly exploiting the chaos in Syria for a land grab.
