Bashar al-Assad
maintained strict secrecy about his plans to leave
Syria
during his regime’s downfall. According to more than a dozen informed sources who spoke to Reuters, he deliberately misled or withheld information from his aides, officials and family members.
On Saturday, at a defence ministry gathering of approximately 30 army and security leaders, Assad gave false assurances about incoming Russian military support and urged the ground forces to maintain their positions, according to an anonymous commander who attended the briefing.
The civilian personnel remained unaware of the situation. Assad deceived his presidential office manager by saying he was heading home after work on Saturday, when he actually proceeded to the airport, according to an insider aide.
He also requested his media adviser, Buthaina Shaaban, to visit his residence to compose a speech, but upon her arrival, she found the premises empty. “Assad didn’t even make a last stand. He didn’t even rally his own troops,” said Nadim Houri, executive director of the Arab Reform Initiative regional think-tank. “He let his supporters face their own fate.”
Discussions with 14 individuals familiar with his final period in power reveal a leader seeking external assistance to maintain his 24-year rule before orchestrating a covert departure from Syria early Sunday.
The sources, including former presidential inner circle members, regional diplomats, security officials and senior Iranian representatives, requested anonymity to discuss sensitive information freely.
Assad excluded even his younger brother, Maher, the Army’s 4th armoured division commander, from his escape plans. According to three aides, Maher subsequently travelled to Russia via Iraq by helicopter.
His maternal cousins, Ehab and Eyad Makhlouf, were left behind as Damascus fell. According to a Syrian aide and Lebanese security official, they attempted to escape to Lebanon by car but encountered rebels. Ehab was killed and Eyad wounded in the ambush. The incident lacks official confirmation.
On December 8, Assad departed Damascus by aircraft, flying with the transponder disabled, according to two regional diplomats. His departure concluded his 24-year leadership, his family’s 50-year rule, and effectively ended the 13-year civil war. He travelled to Russia’s Hmeimim airbase in Latakia, then proceeded to Moscow.
His immediate family – wife Asma and their three children – were already in Moscow, according to three former close aides and a senior regional official.
Social media footage of Assad’s residence, captured by rebels and citizens who entered the presidential complex after his departure, suggests a rushed exit, showing unfinished meals on the stove and abandoned personal items, including family photographs.
Russia’s military assistance would not be forthcoming, despite their crucial 2015 intervention that had previously supported Assad’s position in the civil war. Similarly, Iran, another steadfast supporter, would not provide military aid.
Assad received this news during his attempts to secure support from various sources whilst trying to maintain his grip on power and ensure his safety, according to individuals who spoke with Reuters.
On November 28, Assad travelled to Moscow, following Syrian rebel attacks in Aleppo province and their swift advance across the nation. Three regional diplomats reported that his requests for military support were rejected by the Kremlin.
According to Hadi al-Bahra, who leads Syria’s main opposition abroad, Assad misrepresented the Moscow meeting’s outcome to his staff, based on information from an insider within Assad’s circle and a regional official.
“He told his commanders and associates after his Moscow trip that military support was coming,” Bahra added. “He was lying to them. The message he received from Moscow was negative.”
On Wednesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov informed reporters that whilst Russia had previously invested significant effort in stabilising Syria, its current focus was the Ukraine conflict.
On December 2, four days after the Moscow visit, Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araqchi met Assad in Damascus. By then, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) Islamist rebels had captured Aleppo, Syria’s second-largest city, and were advancing southward as government forces weakened.
A senior Iranian diplomat told Reuters that Assad appeared distressed during the meeting and acknowledged his army’s inability to mount effective resistance.
Two senior Iranian officials said that Assad never requested Iranian troops in Syria, recognising that Israel might use such deployment to justify attacks on Iranian forces in Syria or Iran itself.
The Kremlin and Russian foreign ministry declined to comment on this matter, whilst the Iranian foreign ministry was not immediately available for response.
