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BBC presenter John Simpson criticized him for describing Assad as “weak rather than evil” after the fall of the Syrian regime

Posted on by Taylor Reeves
BBC presenter John Simpson criticized him for describing Assad as “weak rather than evil” after the fall of the Syrian regime

BBC World Affairs editor John Simpson has sparked outrage after describing ousted Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad as “weak rather than evil” following the dramatic collapse of his regime.

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Simpson added that when he met in person, he found Assad to be “meek and eager to please” and “the opposite of the traditional dictator.”

Former skills minister Robert Halfon condemned Simpson’s comments as “disgraceful” and pointed out that “Assad is the dictator who has imprisoned thousands and massacred many, many more of his own people with chemical weapons.”

John Simpson was heavily criticized for his comments about the ousted Syrian president

John Simpson was heavily criticized for his comments about the ousted Syrian president

Getty/WikiCOMmons

Broadcaster Piers Morgan also criticized Simpson, stating: “Try telling the people he tortured, murdered and used chemical weapons on that he’s not evil…”

Simpson tried to clarify his position an hour later, writing: “I’m not defending Assad, I’m trying to explain the exact nature of his crimes.” He later added: “(Assad) had a three-fold choice of refuge: Iran. “, United Arab Emirates, Russia may not survive, Dubai may extradite him at some point, but Putin definitely won’t.

The Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed on Sunday that Assad had fled Syria after opposition forces stormed Damascus with minimal resistance. The former dictator “decided to step down from the presidency and left the country ordering a peaceful transfer of power,” a Russian statement on Telegram said.

The rebels’ rapid advance threatened Russia’s strategic military facilities in Syria. Satellite images showed ships departing from the Tartus naval base in recent days. Historian Martin Whittaker called Assad “an extraordinarily brutal and cruel dictator” who brutally crushed a peaceful pro-democracy uprising in 2011.

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A person gestures next to a burning image of President Bashar al-Assad after rebels captured the capital and overthrew the president

A person gestures next to a burning image of President Assad after rebels captured the capital

Reuters

Whittaker said Simpson’s post was wrong: “The danger of saying something like that is that it gives the impression that someone is less guilty, that they don’t have agency.”

He noted that at least half a million people were killed and up to 14 million were forced to flee during Assad’s rule.

The speed at which the situation in Syria is progressing has also raised concerns about greater regional instability in addition to the Gaza war, Israeli attacks on Lebanon and tensions between Israel and Iran.

Israel has pushed tanks across the border into the demilitarized buffer zone with Syria to prevent unrest there from spreading, but says it wants to stay out of the conflict with its neighbor.

The Israeli military released photos of its forces in the Syrian area around Mount Hermon, on the border with Lebanon and near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

During the Syrian civil war, which erupted as an uprising against Assad in 2011, his troops and their Russian allies bombed cities into rubble. The refugee crisis in the Middle East was one of the largest in modern times and caused a political stir in Europe when a million people arrived in 2015.

In recent years, Turkey has supported some rebels in a small redoubt in the northwest and along its border. The United States, which has about 900 troops stationed in Syria, supported a Kurdish-led alliance that fought Islamic State jihadists from 2014 to 2017.

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