In an exclusive interview with NBC News on Tuesday, Russia’s deputy foreign minister stated that Russia is offering asylum to Bashar al-Assad, having moved the former Syrian leader there in the safest manner possible following the fast fall of his regime.
Sergei Ryabkov, the first Russian official to acknowledge Assad’s presence in the nation, stated, “He is secured, and it shows that Russia acts as required in such an extraordinary situation.”
Ryabkov stated that it would be improper for me to go into detail about what transpired and how it was settled, adding that he had no idea what was going on with him at the moment.
The fall of a regime that Russian President Vladimir Putin fully backed has dealt him a serious setback, enabling Assad to hold onto power during the civil war in Syria and uphold his family’s violent reign, which started in 1971.
Ryabkov added that Russia would keep backing the Syrian leader whose government has been accused by human rights organizations, whistleblowers, and former prisoners of war crimes, including using chemical weapons and barrel bombs, murder, systematic torture, and forcing tens of thousands of people to disappear since the 2011 mass uprising that started the conflict.
When asked if the Kremlin would turn over Assad for trial, Ryabkov responded that Russia is not a party to the treaty that created the International Criminal Court.
Syria has refused to accept the court’s jurisdiction and has not joined the Hague, Netherlands-based court. In 2014, an attempt to impose its jurisdiction was thwarted by China and Russia. Additionally, neither Israel nor the US acknowledge the ICC’s jurisdiction because it lacks police to carry out its orders.
Separately, the court issued an arrest warrant for Putin in March 2023 for war crimes related to his supervision of the illegal kidnapping and deportation of children from Ukraine to Russia.
Additionally, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant were handed arrest warrants by the ICC last month for suspected war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.The United States stated that it rejected the ruling, and Israel denied the claims.
The same set of nations and regimes who consistently crush attempts to live their own way, as was the case in Iraq, Libya, and numerous other places, blamed Assad. “That the United States configures its reaction and response depending on whom the court is prosecuting was amazing, but it is also very revealing,” Ryabkov added.
According to Ryabkov, Russia firmly and firmly believes that Syria should be independent, unified, and integrated, regardless of who ends up ruling the country—whether it is the militant organization Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which led opposition forces as they overran Syria, or someone else.
He continued, “Hopefully, we won’t have a situation there that would mean parts of Syria are separated from one another.”
After Netanyahu ordered his troops to take charge of the demilitarized and U.N.-patrolled buffer zone with Syria, which was established under a cease-fire agreement in 1974, he also encouraged Israel to take the situation in the Golan Heights seriously. According to Ryabkov, Israel ought to abide by that agreement and refrain from violating Syria’s territorial integrity.
According to him, Russia and the United States did have similar worries about the possibility of the Islamic State terrorist organization reemerging in Syria. In Syria, where ISIS has a limited force, the United States has carried out several airstrikes against its targets.
Regarding another issue, Ryabkov stated that the Kremlin would undoubtedly be open to the idea of another prisoner exchange, like to the one that was carried out in August and led to the release of Wall Street Journal writer Evan Gershkovich and three other Americans from Russian detention.
Such agreements necessitated a multi-phased or multi-step strategy on both sides, which in certain situations included pardoning those who were serving sentences. The agreement negotiated by Turkey involves a number of other nations, notably Slovenia and Germany.
Although he did not wish to foreshadow anything, Ryabkov stated that such agreements enhance ties between the United States and Russia, and that a new agreement would be “a healthy step forward, especially at the beginning of the next administration.”
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