Russia refused aid to Syria, Arab countries refused weapons, Iran evacuated military personnel (video)

The Kremlin has informed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that it does not intend to intervene “significantly” to save his regime from the rapidly advancing rebels because it has “other priorities” now.

About this writes Sky News Arabia, citing an informed source. In a matter of days, the rebels managed to capture several large cities. On Friday, troops led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) approached the city of Homs. They captured Aleppo in the north over the weekend before moving south and taking Hama on Thursday. On Friday, it was reported that Kurdish forces had entered Deir Ezzor in Syria and taken control of the border crossings with Iraq after Assad's forces abandoned the city to advance into the center of the country.

Now the rebels are approaching Homs, the capture of which will cut off the western coastal region of the country from government-controlled territory. It is there that the naval base in Tartus, restored in 2015 (Russia calls it a logistics support point for the Navy), and the air base in Khmeimim are located. The Russian fleet left Tartus at the beginning of the week, which the Russian Ministry of Defense explained as “exercises” in the Mediterranean Sea.

Bloomberg, citing a source close to the Kremlin, confirms: Moscow has no plan to save Assad, whose regime almost fell in 2011 and has survived for the past nine years thanks to the Russian army. This plan is unlikely to appear, the agency’s source claims, given that Assad’s army is retreating and surrendering one city after another.

Director of Syria and Counterterrorism and Extremism Programs at the Washington Near East Institute Charles Lister says:

“Assad's future has never looked more fragile than it does today, and now Russia appears unable – or perhaps even unwilling – to save him.”

He noted that the majority in rural areas of Homs still tacitly support the opposition, and this will significantly help in clearing the way to the city itself. Earlier it was reported that Russia was withdrawing its military fleet from Syria. On December 2, the tanker Yelnya, important for supporting Russian forces in the Mediterranean, left Tartus.

As it was written our editionthe situation in Syria is developing according to the worst-case scenario for President Assad. After the fall of the country's second largest city, Aleppo, almost without a fight, the large city of Hama, located on the way to Damascus, was also surrendered.

If the surrender of Aleppo could be explained by the “factor of surprise,” then the capture of Hama no longer lends itself to this explanation. This indicates serious problems with the combat capability of the Syrian army and calls into question its ability to organize resistance. The situation is reminiscent of the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, which could lead to a rapid fall in power.

Late last week, after the fall of Aleppo, we reported that Assad has a chance of avoiding the Afghan scenario if he can win the support of the Kurds and receive military assistance from Iran and allied Shiite groups such as Hezbollah. Iran has already announced its readiness to send an army to help the Syrian authorities.

However, to take advantage of this support, Assad needs to stop his opponents' advance. Otherwise, Iran will have no one to help, and the Kurds will not support the losers.

Meanwhile, on Friday December 6, Iran began evacuating its military personnel, as well as some diplomats and civilians from Syria. The newspaper reported this yesterday The New York Times citing Iranian officials. According to sources, an order has been given to evacuate the Iranian Embassy in Damascus and the bases of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Some Iranians are transported by plane to Tehran, and some by land to Lebanon, Iraq and the Syrian port of Latakia. Among those evacuated to neighboring Iraq and Lebanon were senior commanders of Iran's Quds Force, a branch of the IRGC.

“We cannot fight as an advisory and auxiliary force if the Syrian army itself does not want to fight… Iran has realized that it cannot now cope with the situation in Syria through any military operation, and this option is not being considered,” he told the publication Mehdi Rahmati, a prominent Iranian analyst who advises officials on regional strategy. At the same time, the newspaper notes that Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi visited Damascus this week, met with President Bashar al-Assad and assured him of Iran's full support. But on Friday in Baghdad he made a more ambiguous statement: “We are not fortune tellers. Everything will be God's will.”

The Assad regime has lost the major city of Daraa in southwestern Syria. Government troops, according to local media, surrendered the city without a fight as part of an agreement that ensures the safe exit of Assad’s army towards Damascus. Daraa is the administrative center of the province of the same name. Yesterday, Syrian rebels also entered the city of Suwayda, the administrative center of a neighboring province. Today Assad's troops surrendered Palmyra:

According to the Wall Street Journal, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has been asked to form an interim council that will include opposition representatives. However, the Jordanian Embassy in the United States denied this information. At the moment, Assad remains in Syria. Faced with the rapid advance of rebel forces and the retreat of the Syrian army, he called on Turkey to intervene in the situation and previously asked Ankara, Cairo, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Iraq for arms supplies. The Syrian dictator was refused, the article says. According to the publication, Arab countries are concerned about the possible collapse of his government, but did not send weapons in response to Damascus' request.

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