Asma al-Assad has not filed for divorce from Bashar al-Assad, says Kremlin
The British-born wife of deposed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is not seeking a divorce, a Kremlin spokesman said.
Turkish media reported that Asma Assad wanted to end her marriage and leave Russia, where she and her husband were granted asylum after a rebel coalition overthrew the former president’s regime and took control of Damascus.
Asked about the reports at a press conference, Dmitry Peskov said: “No, they do not correspond to reality.”
He also denied reports that Assad was confined to Moscow and that his assets were frozen.
Russia is a staunch ally of Assad’s regime and provided military support to him during the civil war.
But Turkish media reported on Sunday that Assad’s family was under tight restrictions on life in the Russian capital and that the former Syrian first lady had filed for divorce and wanted to return to London.
Mrs. Assad holds dual Syrian and British citizenship, but the British Foreign Secretary has previously stated that she will not be allowed to return to the UK.
Speaking in parliament earlier this month, David Lamy said: “I want confirmation that she is a sanctioned individual who is not welcome in the UK.”
He added that he would “do whatever I can” to ensure that any member of the Assad family “finds a place in the UK”.
Bashar al-Assad issued a statement last week saying he never intended to flee Syria, but he Airlifted from Russian military bases at Moscow’s request.
Asma al-Assad, 49, was born in Britain in 1975 to Syrian parents and grew up in Acton, west London.
In 2000, at the age of 25, she moved to Syria and married her husband a few months after he succeeded her father as president.
During her 24 years as Syria’s first lady, Mrs. Assad has been a subject of curiosity in the Western media.
A controversial 2011 Vogue profile called her a “desert rose” and described her as “the freshest, most glamorous first lady.” The article has been removed from the Vogue website.
Just a month later, Mrs. Assad was criticized for remaining silent during her husband’s violent crackdown on pro-democracy activists at the start of Syria’s civil war.
The conflict went on to claim approximately half a million lives, and her husband was accused of using chemical weapons against civilians.
In 2016, Mrs Assad told Russian state-backed television that she had rejected a deal that would have provided her with safe passage out of the war-torn country To support her husband.
she announced that she was Treat breast cancer In 2018, she said she fully recovered after a year.
Then-President Assad’s office announced that she was diagnosed with leukemia and began treatment in May this year.
A statement said she would “temporarily withdraw” from public events.
