Asma al-Assad has not filed for divorce from Bashar al-Assad, says Kremlin

The British-born wife of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad does not want a divorce, a Kremlin spokesman has said.

Turkish media reports say Asma al-Assad wants to end her family and leave Russia, where she and her husband were granted asylum after a terrorist group seized power from the former president and seized control of Damascus.

When asked about the reports at a press conference, Dmitry Peskov said, “No, they do not correspond to reality.”

He also denied reports that Assad had been detained in Moscow and that his assets had been frozen.

Russia was closely allied with the Assad regime and provided military support during the civil war.

But Turkish media reports on Sunday said the Assads were living under restrictions in the Russian capital, and that Syria’s first lady had filed suit and wanted to return to London.

Mr Assad is a dual citizen of Syria and Britain, but the UK foreign secretary has previously said he will not be allowed to return to Britain.

Speaking in parliament earlier this month, David Lammy said: “I want it to be clear that he is a legitimate person and that he is not welcome here in the UK.”

He said he would do “everything in my power” to ensure no member of the Assad family “finds a place in the UK”.

In a statement made by Bashar al-Assad last week, he said he did not want to flee Syria, but he was. he was airlifted from a Russian military base at Moscow’s request.

Asma al-Assad, 49, was born in the UK to Syrian parents in 1975 and grew up in Acton, west London.

She moved to Syria in 2000 at the age of 25 and married her husband a few months after succeeding her father as president.

Throughout her 24 years as Syria’s first lady, Mrs. Assad has had an interest in Western affairs.

A controversial 2011 Vogue profile called her “a flower in the desert” and described her as “the latest and greatest of women”. This article was removed from the Vogue website.

A month later, Mrs Assad was criticized for remaining silent as her husband brutally cracked down on pro-democracy activists at the start of Syria’s civil war.

The conflict claimed the lives of nearly half a million people, with her husband accused of using chemical weapons against civilians.

In 2016, Assad told Russian state-backed television that he had rejected a deal to allow him to leave the war-torn country. to stand with her husband.

He announced that he was breast cancer treatment in 2018 and said he recovered a year later.

He was diagnosed with leukemia and began treatment for the disease in May this year, President Assad’s office announced at the time.

The term “temporarily withdrawn” from public discussion.