Syria: Assad family seeks international safeguards

Informed Syrian opposition sources told al-Araby al-Jadeed that members of the Assad family have been in contact with Western and international parties, requesting intervention to protect minorities and secure international safeguards for their sect. 

The revelation comes as concerns grow that  Bashar al-Assad’s regime could suddenly collapse, given the string of defeats inflicted on the regime by the Syrian opposition and so called Islamic State group, amid  signs of disintegration of the army and of low morale.  

The sources confirmed that members of the Alawites sect, to which Assad belongs, are beginning to fear the collapse of the regime, losing faith in Assad’s ability to continue in power and searching for other alternatives with international parties who could prevent massacres if the regime falls.    

Signs of the Syrian army’s collapse are already apparent after the defeat in Idlib by al-Fateh army and losing more high-rank officers in the battle of the Jisr al-Shughur hospital, as well as the withdrawal of its forces before the Islamic State in Palmyra, losing supply lines in Aleppo, and successively losing battles in the south even though Iran runs the field there.