Oleg Davygora21:57, 07.12.24

The dictator ordered troops to be sent to the capital, making it clear that he was open to negotiations.

As rebels edge closer to the Syrian capital , dictator Bashar al-Assad has made a last-ditch attempt to stay in power, including indirect diplomatic overtures to the United States and President-elect Donald Trump.

According to Bloomberg, Assad has ordered his army to retreat to defend Damascus, effectively ceding most of the country to rebels who captured the major cities of Aleppo and Hama in a lightning offensive last week. They are now on the outskirts of Homs.

The publication’s sources claim that one of the proposals Assad made to the US through the United Arab Emirates is that Syria would cease all cooperation with Iranian-backed paramilitary groups such as Hezbollah if Western powers had the influence to stop the fighting.

Another initiative involved Assad sending a senior Christian leader to meet with Hungarian President Viktor Orban to convey what he sees as an “existential threat to Syria’s Christian minority” if Islamist rebels prevail, according to other people familiar with the plan. The intention, it is claimed, was for Orban, a Trump ally, to communicate the danger to the new US president.

Iran has meanwhile scaled back its presence in Syria, leaving only its military advisers concentrated around the capital. Some Iranian-backed Iraqi militias have also returned home after the government ceded the eastern city of Deir ez-Zor to U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters.

War in Syria – latest news

Rebels have approached the Sayedin military prison , where thousands of opponents of Bashar al-Assad’s regime have been tortured and executed, and thousands more may remain there today.

Images on social media show that the prison, located 30 km from Damascus, is already in the rebels’ sights. Opposition news portals reported that troops from the Syrian army’s 127th Brigade, which was defending the prison, have been withdrawn.

(c)UNIAN 2024