The ousted Syrian president, Bashar al Assad, has reappeared nine days after leaving Damascus to go into exile in Russia.
In a statement published by his press office on Telegram, Al Assad has denied having betrayed the Syrian people. President “cannot be a person who renounces the people to which he belongs or who betrays him and his Army,” he defended.
Furthermore, the former president assures in the statement that he did not consider “not once” the possibility of resigning or requesting asylum in another country, nor did he receive “any proposal in this regard.”
“Syria is in the hands of terrorists”
The document, dated in Moscow the 16th of Decemberis titled “President Bashar al-Assad’s explanation of the circumstances that led him to leave Syria.”
Al Assad, who had governed his country since the death of his father, Hafez, in 2000, stressed that he intended to “continue the fight against the advance of terrorists” although “when the State falls into the hands of terrorists, any position loses meaning,” he argued.
“Upon arriving at the (Russian) Jemimim base I learned that our troops had abandoned all their positions,” he said. The situation in the vicinity of the air base deteriorated rapidly, as said facility “was subject to a massive drone attack,” he continues to explain.
Therefore, “Moscow demanded that the base command evacuate him immediately” bound for Russia.
Al Assad ends by saying that his love for Syria and his “deep sense of belonging to the country and the people” make him hope that “the country will once again be free and independent,” he said.
The former president received asylum in Russia on December 8, but since then he has not appeared publicly nor have images of him and his family been released in this country.
