Syrian President Bashar Assad flees with instructions of 'peaceful transfer of power'
Syrian opposition fighters celebrate the fall of the government in Damascus. Picture: Omar Sanadiki/AP
Syrian President Bashar Assad has left Syria after negotiations with rebel groups, and given “instructions” to “transfer power peacefully”, Russia’s foreign ministry has said.
Moscow had not directly participated in these talks, the ministry said in a post on the Telegram messaging app.
It also said it had been following the “dramatic events” in Syria “with extreme concern”.
The collapse of the Syrian government, falling to a lightning rebel offensive that seized control of the capital Damascus, sent crowds into the streets on Sunday to celebrate the end of the Assad family’s 50 years of iron rule.
Syrian state television aired a video statement early on Sunday by a group of men saying Mr Assad had been overthrown and all detainees in jails had been set free.
The man who read the statement said the opposition group known as Operations Room to Conquer Damascus had called on all opposition fighters and citizens to preserve state institutions of “the free Syrian state”.
The statement emerged hours after the head of a Syrian opposition war monitor said Mr Assad had left the country for an undisclosed location, fleeing ahead of insurgents who said they had entered Damascus following a remarkably swift advance across the country.
Many of the capital’s residents were in disbelief at the speed at which Mr Assad lost his hold after nearly 14 years of civil war.
As daylight broke over Damascus, crowds gathered to pray in the city’s mosques and to celebrate in the squares, chanting “God is great”. People also chanted anti-Assad slogans and honked car horns.
Russia has waged a military campaign in Syria since September 2015, teaming up with Iran to allow Mr Assad’s government to fight armed opposition groups and reclaim control over most of the country.
As news of Assad's resignation broke on Sunday, Taoiseach Simon Harris said that this is the moment when the world must act to "prevent chaos and tyranny from filling the vacuum".
Noting the historic and welcome fall of the Assad dictatorship, Mr Harris said the UN, the Arab League and the European Union must ensure the people of Syria now achieve a future "free of isolation and full of normalised relations with their neighbours and world powers".
"In the immediate days, weeks and months ahead the protection of civilian lives and infrastructure and the respecting of international law must be paramount," he said in a statement on Sunday.
"We are talking about a country of more than 23 million people brutalised by war, terror and decades of dictatorship."
Noting the conclusion of a decade of peacekeeping by Irish troops through UNDOF this year, Mr Harris said that today marks a once in a generation opportunity for regime change.
"The future of Syria must be determined by Syrians through a peaceful transition as well as free and fair elections," Mr Harris said.
While Russia now concentrates the bulk of its military resources in Ukraine, it has maintained a military foothold in Syria and keeps troops at its bases there.
It said on Sunday that Russian troops stationed in Syria had been put on high alert and that as of early afternoon on Sunday, there was “no serious threat” to the security of Russia’s military bases there.
