Syria’s former President Bashar al-Assad is in Moscow with his family after Russia granted them asylum on humanitarian grounds, a Kremlin source told Russian news agencies on Sunday, December 8, adding that a deal has been done to ensure the safety of Russian military bases, including a strategically important naval facility in Tartous.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said earlier, that Assad had left Syria and given ‘orders’ for a peaceful transfer of power, after rebel fighters raced into Damascus unopposed on Sunday, ending nearly six decades of his family’s iron-fisted rule.

“Syrian President Assad of Syria and members of his family have arrived in Moscow. Russia has granted them asylum on humanitarian grounds,” the Interfax news agency quoted the unnamed Kremlin source as saying.

It cited the same source as saying Russia favoured a political solution to the crisis in Syria, where Moscow supported Assad during the country’s long civil war.

The source said negotiations should be resumed under the auspices of the United Nations.

Syrian opposition leaders had agreed to guarantee the safety of Russian military bases and diplomatic institutions in Syria, the source told news agencies.

Russia, a staunch backer of Assad whom it intervened to help in 2015 in its biggest Middle East foray since the Soviet collapse, is scrambling to salvage its position with its geopolitical clout in the wider region and two strategically-important military bases in Syria on the line.

A deal to secure Russia’s Hmeimim air base in Syria’s Latakia province and its naval facility at Tartous on the coast would come as a relief to Moscow after warnings that the bases were dangerously exposed.

The Tartous facility is Russia’s only Mediterranean repair and replenishment hub, and Moscow has used Syria as a staging post to fly its military contractors in and out of Africa.

Losing Tartous would be a serious blow to Russia’s ability to project power in the Middle East, the Mediterranean and Africa, according to Western military analysts.

Earlier on Sunday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the two military facilities had been put on a state of high alert, but played down an immediate risk to them.

“There is currently no serious threat to their security,” the ministry said as it announced Assad’s departure from office and from Syria.

“As a result of negotiations between B. Assad and a number of participants in the armed conflict on the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic, he decided to resign from the presidency and left the country, giving instructions for a peaceful transfer of power,” it said in the statement. “Russia did not participate in these negotiations.”

There were unconfirmed media reports that Assad had been visiting Moscow, where his elder son studied, when rebels reached Aleppo late last month, before returning to Syria. .

The Syrian flag was removed on Sunday from a pole outside the country’s embassy in Moscow, Reuters reporters observed. TASS quoted embassy staff as saying the embassy would operate as normal on Monday.

President Bashar al-Assad of Syria has fled the capital city of Damascus.
He is believed to have gone to an unknown destination, following the ‘liberation’ of Damascus and other cities by opposition fighters.

This political change has brought to an end the more than 50 years of rule by Bashar al-Assad and his father, Hafez.
In a statement broadcast live on Syrian national television on Sunday, a group of fighters said the “tyrant Assad has been toppled” and that all prisoners have been freed from a major prison facility in Damascus.

“We wish all our fighters and citizens preserve and maintain the property of the state of Syria,” a leader of the group said.

Exclusive footage captured by Al Jazeera showed the opposition fighters entering the presidential palace in Damascus.

The armed opposition also shared a video that it says was taken by its fighters from the strategic Mezzeh Air Base in Damascus. The base played a major role in launching government rocket attacks and air raids against opposition-held territory.
Earlier on Sunday, fighters entered the heart of the capital announcing that a “new era” free of revenge, inviting Syrians overseas to return.

Hadi al-Bahra, who heads the Syrian political opposition coalition overseas, declared Damascus “free of al-Assad” and congratulated the Syrian people.

In a statement, Syrian Prime Minister Mohammad Ghazi al-Jalali said he remains in his home, willing to cooperate with the opposition, adding that he wants to ensure public institutions continue to function.

At the same time, Abu Mohamed al-Julani, head of main fighting group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, has ordered opposition fighters not to attack public institutions and services.

Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh, who is reporting from neighbouring Amman, Jordan, described the latest development in Syria as “seismic.”

“The fall of the Assad regime is the end of an era in the Middle East, and it will have big news implications across the region,” she said.
Witnesses report jubilation in Damascus, with chants of “Freedom! Freedom!” as Syrians celebrate an end to more than 50 years of rule by Bashar al-Assad and his father Hafez before him.

Omar Horanieh, a resident of Damascus, told Al Jazeera that before opposition fighters entered the city, he heard loud blasts and sounds of shooting.

He said that once the fighters entered the city, “everyone was shouting God is the greatest.”

Videos posted online also showed residents taking down images of the president.

Celebrations were also reported in the city of Latakia as well as along the border with Lebanon.

Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr, who is reporting from the Lebanese side of the border, said that while “a lot of uncertainties lie ahead”, Syrians are looking forward to “return to their homes.”

“It is about returning to their families, whom they have been separated for such a long time,” she said.

Meanwhile in the opposition stronghold of Aleppo, residents toppled over a statue of the late president Hafez al-Assad, father of Bashar al-Assad.
The Syrian opposition groups’ Administration of Military Affairs also said that its forces are advancing in the western Deir Az Zor countryside.

Fighters released the prisoners held in Sednaya Prison north of Damascus, as they have done in other cities they have taken during their lightning advance over the past 10 days or so.

Soldiers are reported to have dropped their weapons in the face of the advancing rebel fighters and, early on Sunday morning, the army command confirmed that al-Assad’s rule was done, Reuters reported.

The same scenes of celebration had been seen only hours before as the fighters entered and took control of the city of Homs, two hours drive north of Damascus, with little to no resistance.

Homs‘ strategic location meant that once the rebel fighters controlled it, they had severed the connection between the capital and al-Assad’s coastal strongholds of Latakia and Tartus.

(Al Jazeera)

U.S. President-elect, Donald Trump has nominated billionaire investment banker Warren Stephens to be the next U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom.

Stephens, 67, is chairman, president, and CEO of Stephens Inc., a privately owned financial services firm headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas.

The businessman said to be worth more than $3 billion is a conservative megadonor and one of the richest men in Arkansas.

He will now have the opportunity to serve the United States from Winfield House, the palatial residence of the U.S. Ambassador that overlooks Regents Park in London.

There was speculation Trump would pick New York Jets owner Woody Johnson for the role for the second time, after his posting in the first administration.

‘I am pleased to announce that Warren A. Stephens, one of the most successful businessmen in the Country, has been nominated to serve as the United States Ambassador to the Court of St. James’s, a role in which he will act as our Representative to the United Kingdom,’ Trump said in a statement on his Truth Social.

‘Over the last 38 years, while serving as the President, Chairman, and CEO of his company, Stephens Inc., Warren has built a wonderful financial services firm, while selflessly giving back to his community as a philanthropist,’ he continued. ‘Warren has always dreamed of serving the United States full time.’

‘I am thrilled that he will now have that opportunity as the top Diplomat, representing the U.S.A. to one of America’s most cherished and beloved Allies. Congratulations to Warren, his wife, Harriet, their three children, Miles, John, and Laura, and their six grandchildren!’ Trump’s Truth Social post read.