In a message broadcast from the state-run television station and over Damascus Radio on Sunday afternoon, Syrian rebels claimed they had ended President Bashar al-Assad’s rule and freed political prisoners, and called on “the mujahidin and citizens to preserve the property of the state of free Syria.”
Meanwhile FlightRadar reported that a Syrian Air aircraft which had taken off from Damascus around the time the rebels were entering the city and flew towards the coastal region, a stronghold of Assad’s Alawite sect, before making an abrupt u-turn and dropping off the radar.
Several Syrians said they suspect Assad was aboard. Others, however, said Assad had fled to either Moscow or Abu Dhabi hours before the fall the Damascus. Later in the evening, Moscow clarified that Assad and his family had indeed been given asylum in Russia.
Dr Waiel Awwad a veteran international journalist who has been covering conflicts, particularly in West Asia, since 1979, had told StratNewsGlobal after the fall of Aleppo last week that the fall of Damascus was was a distinct possibility.
He joins us live to share his thoughts on what this development means for the region already mired in conflict. What are Iran’s options? Why did Russia not come into defend Syria like it has earlier?
Is the victory by the rebels, who are mostly former Al Qaeda and ISIS activists, a shot in the arm for other jihadis worldwide, particularly those in Pakistan and Afghanistan? After all, Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani, the leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the main rebel faction, is a former Al Qaeda member who was designated as a global terrorist by the US in 2013, with a $10m bounty on his head. So what happens to Syria now?
Watch the full interview to find out.
