Kremlin says Russia played no role in Assad’s decision to step down as Syrian president

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has described former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s resignation from his position as a personal decision made by the leader himself.

He made the remarks during a regular briefing responding to journalists’ questions about what role the Russian leadership played in the process of Assad's resignation as head of state, Caliber.Az reports, citing Russian media.

The journalists also wanted to know whether the authorities took part in the transportation of the Syrian leader and his family members to Moscow.

“Stepping down as head of state was Assad's personal decision. Everything else - no comment,” the spokesman added.

In a related statement, Peskov underlined that Russia continues to maintain contacts with the Middle East states, some of which it has common interests with.

“Russia continues, we have already said, to have dialogue with all regional countries. We will continue this dialogue, we have overlapping interests with many countries, overlapping interests with several regional states. We have very broad cooperation - both trade and economic and other cooperation. And we intend to continue all these processes,” the Kremlin spokesman said.

Morevoer, Peskov noted the is necessity to deeply analyze what is happening in the Middle East after Bashar al-Assad leaves the post of the Syrian president.

He said it is now difficult to talk about the events that will follow after a “period of uncertainty”.

“Now is certainly the time for deep analysis of the events taking place, it is still difficult to predict the final form that will follow after this period of uncertainty,” Peskov told reporters when asked whether Russia was concerned about maintaining its military influence in the region after Assad's departure.

By Khagan Isayev