The flight of Bashar al-Assad seems to have taken (almost) everyone by surprise. Until the last minute, the dictator hid his plans and deceived senior army officers, before discreetly boarding for Russia. The deposed president has increased his caution, leaving most of his close collaborators and even part of his family in ignorance of his project.
The regime greeted the rebels' offensive surge in the northwest of the country with fierce denial. A few hours before his departure for Moscow, the Syrian leader was present at a meeting bringing together around thirty army chiefs and security representatives at the Ministry of Defense in Damascus. Far from showing signs of weakness, the president assured that Russian military support was on the way and that ground forces had to hold on, a commander present in the room told Reuters.
“I told him how difficult the situation was”
The rest of the day, Bashar al-Assad would have continued to act. At the end of the day, he confided to his colleagues, when leaving the presidential office, that he was going home… even though he was planning to go to the airport. To keep up appearances, he also allegedly called his communications advisor, Bouthaina Shaaban, to ask her to come to his home to write a speech for him. But she found no one there. On Saturday evening, the Syrian president also received a phone call from his Prime Minister, Mohammad Ghazi al Jalali.
“During our last call, I told him how difficult the situation was and that there was a huge movement (of people) from Homs to Latakia… that there was panic and horror in the streets,” he told Saudi television channel Al Arabiya this week. To which Bashar al Assad reportedly replied: “Tomorrow, we will see.” “ Tomorrow, tomorrowthat’s the last thing he said to me,” he said. The former prime minister explained that he tried to call Bashar al-Assad again early Sunday, with no response.
But the leader was, it seems, already far away. He would have taken the path to the airport on Saturday evening, about twenty kilometers south of the capital. Why Russia? Three members of his close circle assure that he had first thought of taking refuge in the United Arab Emirates, a long-time supporter of the regime. But Abu Dhabi reportedly refused, fearing international pressure. The options were then limited for the dictator. His destination will ultimately be Russia, where his wife Asma, suffering from cancer, went regularly to seek treatment.
“He left his followers to face their own destiny”
It's difficult to know who was with him that evening on the private plane. His close family – his wife and three children – were already waiting for him in the Russian capital, according to testimonies from three former collaborators. More isolated than ever, Bashar al-Assad would not have informed his younger brother, Maher, the commander of the army's elite 4th armored division, of his escape plan. The dictator's cousins, Ehab and Eyad Makhlouf, were also left to their own devices when the rebels took Damascus, reports a Syrian collaborator.
The deposed president finally took off during the night from Saturday to Sunday, escaping the rebels who stormed the Syrian capital. And marking the end of 50 years of rule of the Assad dynasty in Syria. “Bashar did not even put up a last resistance. He hasn’t even rallied his own troops,” said Nadim Houry, director of the regional think tank, Arab Reform Initiative. In other words, “he left his followers to face their own destiny.”
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