ABC NEWS
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.
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 Assda’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.
