On December 7, 2024, as rebels advanced on Damascus, Assad assured his aides that the situation was under control. A few hours later, he secretly fled the country on a Russian plane, leaving even his closest people behind.
The fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in December 2024 did not come as a result of a dramatic final battle or direct international intervention, but as a result of an internal collapse caused by the personal decisions of the Syrian president himself. This is how journalist Robert F. Worth begins the narrative of his research in The Atlantic. According to the testimonies of dozens of former officials, officers and people close to the presidential palace in Damascus, Assad was an increasingly detached leader, obsessed with luxury, sex and electronic games, who systematically rejected every diplomatic “lifeline” offered to him by countries in the region and the West.
ESCAPE IN SILENCE
On December 7, 2024, as rebels were closing in on Damascus, Assad assured his aides that the situation was under control. A few hours later, he secretly left the country on a Russian plane, leaving behind even his closest people. That same evening, state media declared that the president was carrying out “constitutional duties” in the palace. The sudden departure caused immediate anger among his supporters. “Today, no one trusts Bashar al-Assad anymore, not even his brother,” Syrian journalist Ibrahim Hamidi is quoted as saying.
NOT GEOPOLITICS, BUT BASHARI
Contrary to the initial interpretation that the regime’s fall was due to the withdrawal of Russia and Iran involved in other wars, internal sources claim that Assad could have saved power if he had accepted the compromises offered. The Gulf countries, especially the United Arab Emirates, offered him normalization and economic aid since 2017, on condition of distancing himself from Iran. Assad refused. The United States also offered a deal through the case of American journalist Austin Tice, but Assad blocked the talks for personal and vindictive reasons.
AN EMPTY REGIME
After the 2017 military victory, Syria was economically devastated. The army was impoverished and demoralized, while the Assad family enriched itself through the Captagon drug trade, turning the country into a narco-state. Soldiers were paid as little as $10 a month, while inflation and sanctions deepened poverty. Multiple sources describe a president who did not listen to advice, surrounded by a tight circle of courtiers, among them Luna al-Shibl, a former journalist and key figure in the palace, who was found dead under mysterious circumstances in July 2024.
LAST MOMENTS
When the rebels, led by Ahmed al-Sharaa, launched their offensive in late November 2024, Assad was in Moscow. Russia refused to bail him out militarily and urged him to negotiate with Turkey. He did not. On December 7, the foreign ministers of Russia and several Arab countries tried to broker a political transition, but no one was able to reach Assad. He had turned off his phone. In the early hours of December 8, after realizing that the army had disintegrated and the allies were leaving, Assad ordered preparations for his departure. When his driver asked him in disappointment, “Are you really leaving us?” Assad replied, shifting the blame: “Why aren’t you fighting?” Moments later, he fled under Russian protection, ending one of the most brutal regimes in the Middle East.
Assad’s fall, Worth concludes, is classic proof that the greatest weakness of any authoritarian dynasty remains the legacy and personality of the successor. In Syria’s case, the end came not from an external enemy, but from Bashar al-Assad himself. (DW)