📰 The Night of the Fall: When the Assad Family Split and Damascus Slipped from Their Grasp

That night, dialogue-with-syrian-civil-society-for-first-time/" class="smart-internal-link" title="📰 Damascus hosts EU “Day of Dialogue” with Syrian civil society for first time">damascus/" class="auto-internal-link">damascus seemed to hold its breath. The city was cloaked in darkness, the Presidential Palace unlit, with only faint, intermittent radio signals—picked up by security devices—flickering like the dying gasps of a crumbling regime. An aging system, unresponsive to urgent calls, even from senior advisor Bouthaina Shaaban, who was rumored to have been tasked with preparing a televised address that never materialized. At 8 p. m. , from her residence in the heavily guarded Al-Malki district, Shaaban tried repeatedly to reach leader Bashar al-Assad through a direct line to clarify his position. She failed to connect, even through his aides.

In fact, hours later, she packed her bags and fled Damascus, the city she had long spoken for. A House Divided Inside the Presidential Palace, the rift was not merely a difference of opinion but an existential divide between two brothers embodying the regime’s dual faces. While Bashar al-Assad, the soon-to-be-ousted leader, prepared for a quiet withdrawal coordinated with Moscow, his brother Maher, de facto commander of the Fourth Division, rejected what he called a “historic surrender” and insisted on fighting to the end. Sources close to Damascus’s security apparatus reveal that Bashar was fully aware of arrangements to hand over the capital, with negotiations with Russia predating the “liberation of Damascus” by weeks. These sources indicate that Assad agreed to all terms of a deal ensuring safe passage for him and key officers through Russian channels, in exchange for Moscow’s commitment to prevent security chaos or swift trials if the regime collapsed.

In those final hours, Brigadier General Suheil al-Hassan, head of the Russian-aligned Tiger troops, ordered his units to withdraw from southern and southwestern positions without consulting the army’s General Command—a move described as a “calculated repositioning” beyond Maher’s knowledge. Tensions between the brothers peaked the evening before the capital’s fall. As Bashar coordinated exit details with Russian liaison officers, Maher demanded a “general mobilization” and a televised call for resistance to the last breath. The dispute escalated into a sharp verbal confrontation. Maher stormed out of the room in fury; Bashar left in heavy silence, aware the game was over.

A Russian plane was being prepared at Hmeimim Airbase under direct Russian oversight to evacuate him, his family, and select advisors. In the palace’s long corridors, Maher’s voice echoed, demanding fortified defenses around Kafar Souseh and a stand in the city center. But time had run out. There was…