Syria’s ousted leader Bashar Assad says he wanted to keep fighting but Russians evacuated him

DAMASCUS (AP) — Ousted Syrian President Bashar Assad said in a statement Monday he wanted to stay in the country after rebels captured the capital Damascus a week ago, but the Russian military evacuated him from their base in western Syria after it came under attack.

The comments are the first by Assad since he was overthrown by jihadi-led insurgent groups just over a week ago.

Assad said in a statement on his Facebook page 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.

Assad said that after the Russian base came under attack by drones, the Russians decided to move him on the night of Dec. 8 to Russia.

“I did not leave the country as part of a plan as it was reported earlier,” Assad said.

“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.”

Obeida Arnaout, spokesman for the political department of the new transitional government formed by the former insurgents, said in an interview Monday that with the Syrian factions entering Damascus, “the Assad regime is finished with no return” and that Russia “should reconsider its presence on Syrian territory as well as its interests.”

Arnaout said Syria has entered a new phase that will be open to the world, and its new government is looking to build good relations with its neighbors and the world. He called on the U.S. and other countries to reconsider the designation of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham — the main rebel group and a former affiliate of al-Qaida — as a terrorist organization, calling it “not right and not accurate” designation.

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 Syrian leadership had already 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.

“There are political contacts at the highest levels in a way that benefits the Syrian people’s and that strengthen the current administration,” he said.

Asked whether the new government’s security forces would cooperate with the U.S. to combat militants with the Islamic State group, Arnaout said Syrian factions have ousted and rejected IS and the group no longer has a significant presence in the country.

U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led forces in northeast Syria have been the main U.S. ally in fighting IS, and oversee detention centers housing IS militants. However, the future of the Kurds and the semi-autonomous region they control remains unclear in the country’s new post-Assad order. Clashes over territory have taken place in some areas between Kurdish forces and the armed groups that overthrew Assad.

Arnaout said the Kurds are part of the Syrian people and their rights will be protected. However, he said the new government will not accept that any part of Syria be outside of Damascus’ control.

“Kurds are one of the components of the Syrian people and we are very keen that this group has its rights protected,” he said. “The social fabric in Syria is a source of strength and not weakness. But we affirm that we don’t any part of Syria to be separated, and we will not allow that any part of Syria be out of the Damascus government control.”

Also Monday, a U.K.-based war monitor said Israeli airstrikes early Monday hit missile warehouses on the Syrian coast and called it the “most violent strikes” in that part of Syria since 2012.

Israel has been pounding what it says are military sites in Syria after the dramatic collapse of Assad’s rule, wiping out air defenses and most of the arsenal of the former Syrian army. Israeli troops have also seized a border buffer zone, sparking condemnation, with critics accusing Israel of violating the 1974 ceasefire and possibly exploiting the chaos in Syria for a land grab.

Sarah El Deeb And Bassem Mroue, The Associated Press