Bashar al-Assad survives alleged poisoning attempt in Russia
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported on Wednesday that former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad narrowly escaped an assassination attempt while in Russia.
The Observatory announced that Assad had been targeted with poison in an operation allegedly designed to embarrass the Russian government and implicate it in his attempted elimination, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.
According to the Observatory’s report, Assad was discharged from a hospital in the outskirts of Moscow early on Tuesday, September 30, and his condition was described as currently stable. A source told the Observatory that access to Assad during his hospitalization was strictly restricted, with only his brother Maher al-Assad and the former Secretary-General of Presidential Affairs, Mansour Azzam, permitted to visit him.
This dramatic development comes less than a year after Assad was overthrown on December 8, 2024, in a lightning offensive led by opposition groups spearheaded by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which ended 54 years of Assad family rule in Syria.
Only a day after reports of Assad’s survival emerged, on Thursday, an official Syrian Ministry of Defense delegation, headed by Ali Abbas, Chief of Staff of the Syrian Army, arrived in Moscow. The delegation was received by Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, the Russian Deputy Defense Minister.
In a statement, the Russian Ministry of Defense declared that the purpose of the visit was to enhance the mechanisms of military cooperation and coordination between the two states. The ministry stressed that the talks were aimed at strengthening defense ties in light of recent political transformations in Syria and the collapse of the Assad regime.
Similar news
