Assad Advisor Tells Story of Syria's Fall, Suggests Putin 'Tricked' Assad And Left Him Out to Dry

Chris Menahan
InformationLiberation
Jan. 09, 2025

The real story of the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad appears to be that he was cut off by Russian President Vladimir Putin for making overtures to the US and UAE and refusing to enter negotiations with Turkey, at least if one reads between the lines of a new interview with Assad's former media advisor Kamel Saqr.


Saqr's full interview which came out on Saturday is over an hour long and has over a million views in Arabic but no one appears to have translated all of it into English.

Nonetheless, here's how Saudi state media reported on it.

From Al Arabiya English, "Syria's ex-media chief reveals al-Assad's escape details, final plea to Putin":
Saqr said al-Assad told him that during his meeting with Putin, he requested Russia's assistance in helping Iran transport equipment and support to bolster the regime's defenses against the opposition.

"Bashar al-Assad's request to Putin was for him to personally handle the secure aerial transportation necessary to deliver military aid to support or stop the advance of the Syrian opposition," Saqr said.

Al-Assad allegedly told Saqr that Putin had "immediately contacted his chief of staff and requested that preparations be made for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to transport anything needed through the Hmeimim base."

However, Iran later told the ousted president that they had not received any confirmation or "signals to proceed with moving Iranian aircraft to the Hmeimim base [or to] fly through Iraqi airspace to land at the base."

Moscow was questioned following Iran's response but "no answer came."

When asked whether this was a "trick by Putin," Saqr said, "there's no other explanation."

The former media chief went on to explain how there was a "sign" during al-Assad's meeting with Putin which indicated that "something was off."

"Usually during such meetings, a joint press statement is issued," Saqr said. However, no statement followed this meeting, despite details being "leaked" and reports circulating on Russian Telegram channels.

Saqr said he had prepared a press statement and sent it to the Russian side while he waited for instructions on how to proceed.

"This was on Friday evening...we were asked to wait for an hour, then another hour," Saqr detailed. The Russian side then said the matter would be decided the following morning.

"On Saturday morning, Bashar al-Assad informed me that the Russian president had sent someone to his residence at the Four Seasons Hotel in Moscow to inform him that [Putin] preferred not to announce the visit. This came from the Russian president," Saqr said. "That was the end of the matter."

Iran and Russia were al-Assad's main allies during the Syrian conflict, which began in 2011 after al-Assad's violent crackdown on peaceful protests.
The Middle East Eye has more on the Turkey angle:
Assad returned to Damascus a week before his eventual fall, according to Saqr.

The former aide said that Turkey, which supported the rebel offensive, informed Iran that the time for mediation was over.

In recent years Assad repeatedly refused to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Saqr said Assad viewed a meeting as a ploy for political concessions, despite pleas from Russia and Iran.
Assad seems to have alienated the Iranians by allegedly making overtures to the US and UAE.



Putin, busy with Ukraine and not wanting to deal with another major war, may have made a deal with HTS to leave Russia's airbases alone, as they've been left untouched so far.

"We maintain relations with all the groups that control the situation there [in Syria], with all the countries in the region," Putin said during a press conference on Dec 19. "The overwhelming majority of them tell us that they would be interested in our military bases remaining in Syria."

The BBC reported on Dec 18 that satellite images showed Russia "moving a large amount of military equipment in Syria."

"Transport aircraft also appear to have arrived and departed the country in recent days," they claimed.

Evidently, Assad failed to recognize how easily his government could be toppled if outside aid from a weakened Iran and tied down Russia ceased. Had he listened to Putin and entered negotiations with Erdogan, perhaps Syria could have kept its air defenses and military from being bombed to the Stone Age by Israel and prevented Syria from being reduced to a rump state.


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