Syria’s former President Bashar al-Assad is in Moscow with his family after Russia granted them asylum on humanitarian grounds, a Kremlin source told Russian news agencies on Sunday, and a deal has been done to ensure the safety of Russian military bases.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said earlier that Assad had left Syria and given orders for a peaceful transfer of power, after rebel fighters raced into Damascus unopposed on Sunday, ending nearly six decades of his family’s iron-fisted rule.
“Syrian President Assad of Syria and members of his family have arrived in Moscow. Russia has granted them asylum on humanitarian grounds,” the Interfax news agency quoted the unnamed Kremlin source as saying.
It cited the same source as saying Russia favoured a political solution to the crisis in Syria, where Moscow supported Assad during the country’s long civil war.
The source said negotiations should be resumed under the auspices of the United Nations.
Syrian opposition leaders had agreed to guarantee the safety of Russian military bases and diplomatic institutions in Syria, the source told news agencies.
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Moscow, a staunch backer of Assad whom it intervened to help in 2015 in its biggest Middle East foray since the Soviet collapse, is scrambling to salvage its position with its geopolitical clout in the wider region and two strategically-important military bases in Syria on the line.
A deal to secure Russia’s Hmeimim air base in Syria’s Latakia province and its naval facility at Tartous on the coast would come as a relief to Moscow after Russian war bloggers, some of whom are close to the Russian Defence Ministry, warned that the bases were dangerously exposed.
The Tartous facility is Russia’s only Mediterranean repair and replenishment hub, and Moscow has used Syria as a staging post to fly its military contractors in and out of Africa.
Losing Tartous would be a serious blow to Russia’s ability to project power in the Middle East, the Mediterranean and Africa, say Western military analysts.
Disappearing flag
Earlier on Sunday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the two military facilities had been put on a state of high alert, but played down an immediate risk to them.
“There is currently no serious threat to their security,” the ministry said as it announced Assad’s departure from office and from Syria.
Syrian rebels say they have toppled Assad in state television announcement
“As a result of negotiations between B. Assad and a number of participants in the armed conflict on the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic, he decided to resign from the presidency and left the country, giving instructions for a peaceful transfer of power,” it said in the statement.
“Russia did not participate in these negotiations.”
There were unconfirmed media reports that Assad had been visiting Moscow, where his elder son studied, when rebels reached Aleppo late last month, before returning to Syria. The Kremlin declined to comment on the matter at the time.
The Syrian flag was removed on Sunday from a pole outside the country’s embassy in Moscow, Reuters reporters observed. TASS quoted embassy staff as saying the embassy would operate as normal on Monday.
The Foreign Ministry said Moscow was alarmed by events in Syria.
“We urge all parties involved to refrain from the use of violence and to resolve all issues of governance through political means,” its statement said.
“In that regard, the Russian Federation is in contact with all groups of the Syrian opposition.”
It said it was also doing all it could to ensure the safety of Russian citizens in Syria, whom the embassy on Friday advised to leave the country. The Russian Embassy in Damascus told the state TASS news agency on Sunday that its staff were “fine”.
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