Former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad says departure to Russia wasn’t planned

Ousted Syrian president Bashar al-Assad says he had no plans to leave the country after the fall of Damascus a week ago but the Russian military evacuated him after their base in western Syria came under attack.

The comments are the first by Assad since he was overthrown by insurgent groups. 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 co-ordination with Russian allies to the Russian base in the coastal province of Latakia, where he 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.

A U.K.-based war monitor said Israeli airstrikes early Monday hit missile warehouses in Syria and called it the “most violent strikes” 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 defences 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.

Obstacles to establishing Syrian ties

Meanwhile, European Union nations on Monday set out conditions for lifting sanctions on Syria and kick-starting aid amid uncertainty about its new leaders’ intentions just over a week after they seized power.

At a meeting in Brussels, the EU’s top diplomats said they want guarantees from members of Syria’s interim government that they are preparing for a peaceful political future involving all minority groups, one in which extremism and former allies Russia and Iran have no place.

Since Assad’s ouster, few reports have surfaced of reprisals, revenge killings or sectarian violence. Most looting or destruction has been quickly contained.

But the new leadership has yet to lay out a clear vision of how Syria will be governed. The interim government was set up by former opposition forces led by the Islamic militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, a former al-Qaeda affiliate that the EU, U.S. and Canada consider to be a terrorist organization.

The interim government is set to rule until March. Arab foreign ministers have called for UN-supervised elections based on a new constitution. The UN envoy to Syria has pressed for removing sanctions.

To understand more, the EU is sending an envoy to Damascus for talks with those at least temporarily in charge.

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the bloc wants a “stable, peaceful and all-comprising government in place,” but that it will probably take weeks, if not months, for Syria’s new path to be clear.

“Syria faces an optimistic, positive, but rather uncertain future, and we have to make sure that this goes to the right direction,” she told reporters at a meeting of EU foreign ministers. “For us, it’s not only the words, but we want to see the deeds.”

Syria has been shattered by five decades of Assad family rule. Its economy has been destroyed, poverty is widespread, inflation and unemployment are high and corruption seeps through daily life. Millions of people have fled the country.

Hundreds of thousands of them live in Europe, and while some EU countries have suspended asylum applications from Syrian refugees, only those willing to return will be helped to get home, for now.

More than 100,000 Syrian refugees have arrived in Canada since 2015.

In 2011, the EU began imposing asset freezes and travel bans on Syrian officials and organizations in response to Assad’s crackdown on civilian protesters, which turned into civil war. The sanctions have been slapped on some 316 people and 86 entities accused of backing Assad.