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Syria’s Ousted President In Russia

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

MOSCOW/JERUSALEM/DAMASCUS (Worthy News) – Syria’s ousted President Bashar al-Assad has arrived in Moscow after fleeing his country, according to Russian state media and Iranian officials.

His opponents saw it as a stunning fall for “a longtime dictator” who lost his hold on power to a lightning-fast offensive by rebels taking control of Damascus, the capital, on Sunday

Assad’s ouster was an earthshaking moment in the history of Syria, which his family had ruled with an iron fist since the early 1970s.

Islamic rebel factions who tried to unseat him for more than a decade upended his government in a matter of days after years of civil war.

Assad and other officials left Syria after resigning and hosting negotiations with rebel groups, Russia’s Foreign Ministry claimed Sunday. Hours later, Russian state media reported that Assad and his family were in Moscow and given asylum.

Yet It marked a setback for both Russia and Iran, who appeared unable and, in the end, unwilling to save their long-time ally’s regime.

With Assad gone, vast crowds of thousands celebrated in the central squares of Damascus, many shooting in the air, chanting anti-Assad slogans, and others honking cars at the stunning advance from opposition forces.

HOPE AND JOY

Those celebrating his downfall expressed hope, saying they had been living in fear of a government that had “gassed its own people” during the civil war and used “oppressive tactics” to silence dissent.

Video footage also showed anti-government protesters toppling the statue of Syrian leader Assad’s late father, Hafez, in the Damascus suburb of Jaramana.

“Our hearts are dancing with joy,” Walaa Salameh, 35, a resident of the Damascus area, said. “We can’t predict the future, and anything is possible, but the most important thing is we got rid of this oppressive regime.”

But uncertainty remained over who would rule Syria, raising worries of a possible power vacuum in a country where competing factions have vied for territory against each other and Assad’s forces.

Devoted Christians also remained concerned about their future amid reports that Sharia, or Islamic law, had been declared in areas such as Aleppo, a crucial strategic central city.

A Christian Evangelical leader told Worthy News he would have preferred Assad as “he ruled with a secular government” despite his affiliation to Alawites, a religious sect that splintered from Shia Islam.

The Christian leader supported by the Christian and Missionary Alliance (CAMA) said that Christians remain fearful of Islamic rebels taking over the fractured nation. On Sunday, Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, the Islamist rebel leader who spearheaded the rebel offensive, declared the group’s achievement “a victory for the whole Islamic nation.”

ENTHUSIASM NOT SHARED

Yet his enthusiasm wasn’t shared in the United States and Jerusalem amid concerns about rebel links to designated terror groups.

U.S. President Joe Biden, speaking from the White House, said that the United States would support the region “should any threat arrive from Syria during this period of transition,” noting “the terrorist roots” of many of the rebels.

But he pledged that Washington would engage with “all Syrian groups” to establish a transition “toward an independent, sovereign Syria.”

However, as chaos was erupting, U.S. airstrikes struck dozens of Islamic State group camps and leaders in central Syria on Sunday in one of the most significant military strikes in months, the United States Central Command said in a statement.

It added that 75 “targets” had been hit.

The statement said that the United States would continue to target the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, throughout the “dynamic period in Syria.”

The U.S. military said the strikes were intended to make clear the United States was still combating the terrorist group and dissuade the new regime from cooperating with them.

ISRAEL IN SYRIA

Elsewhere, Israeli forces crossed the demilitarized buffer zone in territory it controls in the Golan Heights, abutting Syria.

The Israeli military, which is concerned about the sudden surge in instability near its borders, said it was acting to protect Israeli civilians.

Iraq also secured its border with Syria, according to the official Iraqi News Agency, which said on Sunday that the Al-Qaim border crossing was closed.

As Assad left power, Mohammad Ghazi al-Jalali, Syria’s prime minister, said he would stay in the country and was ready to work with whoever Syrians chose as their leader.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham said it would work with Jalali and called on Syrian military forces in Damascus to stay away from public institutions. It said it would remain under the prime minister’s supervision until they are formally handed over.

That led to some hope that an American journalist who disappeared in Syria more than a decade ago may be home by Christmas.

Biden and the family of Austin Tice, an American journalist who disappeared in Syria in 2012, said Sunday that they believe l he is alive and could be returned to the U.S. after rebel groups toppled Assad. “We think we can get him back, but we have no direct evidence of that yet,” Biden added.

The United States has said it believed Tice had been held captive by the government of Assad, although his regime had long maintained that it had no information about him.