Russia appears to be “letting the Syrian rebels overthrow” President Bashar al-Assad according to Richard Grenell, who served as acting director of National Intelligence for a time during Donald Trump’s first administration.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Grenell, who had been tipped as a possible member of Trump’s incoming administration, commented: “Russia seems to be letting the Syrian rebels overthrow Assad. Big. Time to play chess.”
Syrian rebels have made lightning gains across northern Syria since launching a major offensive on November 27, seizing the “majority” of the country’s second-largest city Aleppo on Friday according to the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Russia launched a military intervention to support Assad in 2015 and still has thousands of personnel in the country, but its air force has been unable to stop the rebels swift offensive.
Newsweek contacted Grenell via Instagram direct message on Saturday outside of regular office hours. The Russian and Syrian foreign ministries were contacted at the same time via email.
Grenell was the acting director of National Intelligence, a Cabinet-level role, under Trump from February to May 2020. Prior to this, he was appointed as the American ambassador to Germany by Trump in 2018. On November 22, Reuters reported Grenell was in the running to be Trump’s new special envoy for the Russia-Ukraine conflict, though former National Security Adviser Keith Kellogg ended up getting the position.
The rebel capture of large sections of Aleppo marks a sharp reversal from 2016 when Assad’s forces, backed by Russia and Iran, seized the city following several years of brutal fighting which left thousands dead.
The fresh offensive has involved a number of rebel groups hostile to Assad with the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham faction, formed in 2017 by a coalition of different groups, some of which were affiliated with Al-Qaeda, playing a key role.
Anti-government fighters brandish their guns as they ride a vehicle in Syria’s northern city of Aleppo on November 30, 2024. Richard Grenell suggested Moscow was “letting the Syrian rebels overthrow” President al-Assad. Anti-government fighters brandish their guns as they ride a vehicle in Syria’s northern city of Aleppo on November 30, 2024. Richard Grenell suggested Moscow was “letting the Syrian rebels overthrow” President al-Assad. OMAR HAJ KADOUR/AFP/GETTY
There were social media reports that the rebel offensive managed to kill a number of Russian special forces personnel though this has not been independently verified by Newsweek.
On Saturday, the Syrian army said fighters from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham had entered Aleppo vowing to “expel them and restore the control of the state.”
The army said: “The large numbers of terrorists and the multiplicity of battlefronts prompted our armed forces to carry out a redeployment operation aimed at strengthening the defense lines in order to absorb the attack, preserve the lives of civilians and soldiers, and prepare for a counterattack.”
Reuters reported on Saturday that Syrian rebels had also seized the city of Maraat al Numan in the northwestern Idlib province.
Some analysts have attributed the rebel success to the weakening or distraction of Assad’s allies, Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Iran, due to the conflict with Israel.
On Wednesday, an American-French brokered ceasefire came into effect between Israel and Hezbollah following months of fighting, which the Israelis said killed thousands of Hezbollah fighters.
In a post on X, Liz Sly, a former Washington Post reporter who specializes on the Middle East, wrote: “Simply astonishing advances by Syrian rebels into Aleppo. In just a few hours they’ve overrun parts of the city they couldn’t take in 4 years of fighting a decade ago. It goes to show how much the Assad regime was depending on Hezbollah and Iran for its survival.”
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