Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad has resigned from his post and left Syria, Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Sunday, shortly after reports claimed that Syrian opposition fighters have taken control of the presidential palace in Damascus.
The development comes shortly after reports said that the reception hall at Damascus presidential palace has been set on fire.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said that the military personnel at the bases in Syria are on high alert, according to TASS news agency. It further said that there was currently no threat to their security.
In a statement the Russian Foreign Ministry said, “We are following the dramatic events in Syria with extreme concern. As a result of negotiations between B. Assad and a number of participants in the armed conflict in the SAR, he decided to leave the presidential post and left the country, giving instructions to transfer power peacefully. Russia did not participate in these negotiations.”
The foreign ministry appealed the parties involved in the conflict to renounce the use of violence and resolve all governance issues by political means.
“In this regard, the Russian Federation is in contact with all groups of the Syrian opposition. We call for respect for the opinions of all ethno-confessional forces of Syrian society, and support efforts to establish an inclusive political process based on the unanimously adopted UN Security Council Resolution 2254. We expect that these approaches will be taken into account by the UN and all interested players, including in the context of the implementation of the initiative of the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative for Syria, Georg Pedersen, to urgently organize inter-Syrian inclusive negotiations in Geneva,” the Russian statement added.
The Syrian rebels earlier today ‘liberated’ Damascus and overthrew the rule of Syrian President Bashar-al-Assad. The rebels freed prisoners from the prisons and took the control of the institutions in Syria. The whereabouts of the Syrian President are unknown.Â
