To the Bitter End: 'Bashar Assad Never Asked for Political Asylum Abroad'

Iran has not asked Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down, nor has it offered him political asylum if he quits, a senior parliamentary official in Tehran told Radio Sputnik.

"This is not true. First, President Assad has never asked us for political asylum nor has he ever wished to leave his country," Hossein Sheikholeslam, a foreign policy adviser to Iran’s parliamentary speaker said.

He added that Qatar’s Emir and the leaders of several other countries had previously offered the Syrian leader billions of dollars in exchange for his agreement to leave the country and seek political asylum abroad, but Assad rejected all those offers and said that he would stay with his people and fight to the bitter end.

"This means that Bashar Assad will not go anywhere, will not abandon his people, and this only adds to his popularity in the country," Hossein Sheikholeslam emphasized.

Earlier, Lebanon's Al Mayadeen broadcaster reported that Qasem Soleimani, the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' foreign operations wing, had allegedly offered Bashar Assad political asylum in Iran. Assad refused, saying that his family was no different from "any Syrian family and they will remain in Damascus."

Reza Moghddasi, an Iranian political scientist and former director of the country’s leading MehrNews agency, also interviewed by Radio Sputnik, warned against taking the report about the asylum offer to Assad too seriously.

"This whole story about Iran having offered asylum to Bashar Assad goes back to 2012 when the situation in Syria and in the capital Damascus was worsening every day, there were offers to move the Syrian President’s family, but not him personally, to Iran for security reasons. Assad still refused saying he had faith in his people and would fight to the bitter end. Shortly after that the terrorists were flushed out and most of them were destroyed," Reza Moghddasi said.

"As to Al Mayadeen’s report, citing Iranian Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi, it is just speculation about events that happed four years ago. With the situation in Syria is now much more stable than in 2012 and the terrorists being flushed out, offering Assad and his family political asylum abroad simply makes no sense. Despite the terrible pressure he didn’t abandon his people, like many ousted presidents have done, and kept fighting the terrorists no matter what."

"The present attempt by certain forces to manipulate public opinion to further their own interests in the region, is bound to fail," Reza Moghddasi added.