Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad and his family are in Moscow, Russian news agencies announced Sunday evening, citing a Kremlin source.
Cornered by the lightning offensive of rebel groups led by radical Islamists, the president left Damascus by plane on Saturday evening but his destination was unknown. His aircraft having suddenly disappeared from radar, some even thought that he had been shot down and that Bashar al-Assad and his relatives were dead.
The Russian announcement therefore put an end to speculation. “Assad and his family members have arrived in Moscow. Russia, based on humanitarian considerations, granted them asylum,” a government source told state news agencies TASS and Ria Novosti.
This source also indicated that Russia was already in contact with the Syrian rebels and that their leaders had “guaranteed the security of Russian military bases and diplomatic institutions on the territory of Syria”.
She indicated that Moscow wants “the continuation of political dialogue in the interests of the Syrian people” and the development of bilateral relations between Russia and Syria. “Russia has always been in favor of a political solution to the Syrian crisis,” said this source in the Kremlin, highlighting “the need to resume negotiations under the auspices of the UN.”
Russia’s deputy representative to the UN, Dmitri Polianski, for his part announced that Moscow had requested that an emergency closed-door meeting of the UN Security Council be held on Monday afternoon on the situation in Syria.
He estimated on Telegram that “the depth and consequences (editor’s note: events in Syria) for this country and the region as a whole have not yet been measured.
Russia was Bashar al-Assad’s main ally along with Iran. It was militarily engaged in the Syrian conflict in 2015 and has a naval base in Tartous and a military airfield in Hmeimim, in the west of the country.
Joe Biden said on Sunday that Bashar al-Assad should be “accountable” for the “hundreds of thousands of innocent Syrians” who were “mistreated, tortured, and killed”.
During a speech at the White House, the American president assured that the United States was “not sure” of the whereabouts of the Syrian president. “But it is said that he is in Moscow,” he added, as Russian news agencies reported that he was in the Russian capital with his family.
The UN Security Council will meet urgently on Monday afternoon for closed-door discussions on Syria, after the fall of President Bashar al-Assad, several diplomatic sources told AFP on Sunday. The consultations, which will take place from 3:00 p.m. (9:00 p.m. Swiss time), were requested earlier on Sunday by Russia.
