🇮🇱🤝🇸🇾 Israel did not want Assad removed from power, US officials tell Turkey

US officials informed Turkey earlier this month that Israel did not want Syrian President Bashar al-Assad removed from power, even after the rebel offensive that seized cities such as Aleppo and Hama, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan revealed in an interview on Sunday.

“Israel has never wanted Bashar to leave,” Fidan told Al Hadath TV.

“Israel was displeased with the space Bashar had granted to the Iranians. Even after the rebel operation began, the Americans conveyed to us that Israel does not want Bashar to go, even until last day.”

Fidan further disclosed that during a 2016 visit to Turkey, then-US Vice President Joe Biden had informed Ankara that Washington opposed toppling Assad.

“He told us that the US doesn’t want Bashar to go,” Fidan said. “We understood that this wasn’t truly his own stance but rather Israel’s position.”

🔗 https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/israel-did-not-want-assad-removed-power-us-officials-tell-turkey

🇮🇱❌🇸🇾 — From the Israeli airstrikes on Tartus, seems like the explosion has reached a family that was recording the airstrikes or a direct airstrike has targeted them.

#BREAKING
🇸🇾🇸🇾 — Deposed former Syrian president Bashar Alassad released a statement regarding the circumstances of his exit from Syria: [click to expand]:

Moscow - December 16, 2024

With the expansion of terrorism in Syria, and its arrival in the capital Damascus on the evening of Saturday, December 7, 2024, questions began to be raised about the fate and location of the president, amidst a torrent of confusion and stories far from the truth, which constituted support for the process of installing international terrorism as a Syrian liberation revolution.

At a critical historical moment in the life of the nation, when truth should have a place, there is something that needs to be clarified through a brief statement. These circumstances and the subsequent complete cessation of communication for security reasons did not allow for it to be made, and its brief points do not replace the narration of the details of everything that happened later, when the opportunity arises.

First of all, I did not leave the country in a planned manner as was rumored, nor did I leave it during the last hours of the battles, but rather I remained in Damascus following up on my responsibilities until the early morning hours of Sunday, December 8, 2024. With the expansion of terrorism inside Damascus, I moved in coordination with my Russian friends to Latakia to follow up on the combat operations from there. Upon arriving at the Hmeimim base in the morning, it became clear that the forces had withdrawn from all the battle lines and that the last army positions had fallen, with the deterioration of the field situation in that area increasing, and the attack on the Russian military base itself being escalated by drones. In light of the impossibility of leaving the base in any direction, Moscow asked the base leadership to work on securing immediate evacuation to Russia on the evening of Sunday, December 8, the day after the fall of Damascus, and after the fall of the last military positions and the subsequent paralysis of the rest of the state institutions.

During those events, the issue of asylum or resignation was not raised by me or by any person or party, and the only option presented was to continue fighting in defense of the terrorist attack.

In this context, I emphasize that whoever, since the first day of the war, refused to trade his country's salvation for personal salvation, or to bargain with his people with various offers and temptations, is the same person who stood with the officers and soldiers of his army on the front lines, dozens of meters away from the terrorists in the hottest and most dangerous hotbeds of conflict, and is the same person who did not leave during the most difficult years of the war and remained with his family and people to face terrorism under bombardment and the danger of terrorists storming the capital more than once during fourteen years of war. And whoever did not abandon the non-Syrian resistance in Palestine and Lebanon, and did not betray his allies who stood with him, cannot be the same person who abandons his people to whom he belongs, or betrays them and his army.

I have never been a person who seeks positions on a personal level, but rather I considered myself the owner of a national project that derived its support from a people who believed in it. I carried the certainty of the will of that people and their ability to preserve their state and defend its institutions and choices until the last moment. With the fall of the state into the hands of terrorism, and the loss of the ability to provide anything, the position becomes empty and meaningless, and there is no meaning to remaining responsible in it. This does not mean in any way abandoning the authentic national affiliation to Syria and its people, a fixed affiliation that is not changed by position or circumstance, a affiliation filled with hope that Syria will return free and independent.



🇮🇱😘🇵🇸❌🇵🇸 — Israeli backed PA militants continue to advance to Jenin camp to raid it while shooting at peaceful protestors

🇸🇾🇺🇸⚠️ BREAKING: The prisoner CNN helped free from a secret facility in Syria was allegedly Salama Mohammad Salama, a former first lieutenant in Syrian air force intelligence accused of committing war crimes, including torturing those who refused to pay bribes.

The footage of journalist Clarissa Ward leading the man to freedom went viral, with CNN describing it as “one of the most extraordinary moments” in Ward's career.

CNN later acknowledged, “We have been investigating his background and are aware that he may have given a false identity,” and stated they are continuing to look into the matter.

@TabZLIVE

🇮🇱❌🇸🇾 — Report in the Russian Sputnik agency:

An Israeli helicopter landed near a military site in the Damascus area today. Soldiers disembarked, entered the military site, and returned to the helicopter 20 minutes later.

🇺🇦❌🇷🇺❗️ — The head of Russia’s nuclear defense forces has been killed by an explosive device planted close to a residential apartment block in Moscow!