Video: CNN shows Bashar al-Assad’s luxury car collection

Clarissa Ward, correspondent for CNN, had exclusive access to the various garages full of luxury cars that belonged to Bashar al-Assad.

In one of these garages, located in the presidential palace complex, the journalist showed the deposed president’s luxurious collection, with car models such as Aston Martin, Lamborghini and Ferrari.

See Assad’s luxury car collection:

Outside, there were more parking lots with dozens of armored cars.

The cars seen by Clarissa indicate the deep corruption of the Assad regime, with these vehicles being a large part of the reason why the uprising in Syria began in 2011.

“The cars symbolize the levels of corruption and greed, they show Assad’s opulence and luxurious lifestyle, while so many Syrians were struggling to put food on the table,” highlighted the correspondent for CNN.

The former ruler had been in power since 2000, when he took over the country after the death of his father, Hafez al-Assad, who had led Syria since the 1970s.

“For the past 14 years, Syrians have been under bombing, torture, mutilation, kidnapping and death, while Assad lived like a king, with garages full of cars. And incredible palaces, mosaics and marble”, said Clarissa.

When talking about the scene she saw in the presidential palace, the correspondent for CNN highlighted that he observed some civilians who invaded the place were astonished and “jaw dropped”.

According to the journalist, for Syrians it was not possible to believe that Bashar al-Assad was living a luxurious lifestyle in which, at the same time, the country was suffering a deep crisis.

“So this is really a metaphor for the root of the rot, where it all started,” he noted.

When analyzing the situation in the country, Clarissa stated that, although many Syrians are celebrating the end of the Assad regime, the population remains anxious about who will control the country.

In efforts to prove itself different, the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group, the country’s main rebel force, refused to use or touch luxury vehicles, seeking to differentiate itself from the former president.

“However, the rebels who were guarding the palace did not look at me or speak to me until I put on my headscarf, so there are still extremely conservative tendencies in most of the rebel forces that are controlling the country,” Clarisa described.

Understand the conflict in Syria

The Assad family regime was overthrown in Syria on December 8, after 50 years in power, when rebel groups took over the capital Damascus.

President Bashar al-Assad has fled the country and is in Moscow after gaining asylum, according to a source in Russia.

Syria’s civil war began during the Arab Spring in 2011, when the regime of Bashar al-Assad suppressed a pro-democracy uprising.

The country was plunged into full-scale conflict when a rebel force was formed, known as the Free Syrian Army, to fight government troops.

Furthermore, the Islamic State, a terrorist group, also managed to gain a foothold in the country and came to control 70% of Syrian territory.

Fighting escalated as other regional actors and world powers — from Saudi Arabia, Iran, the United States to Russia — joined in, escalating the country’s war into what some observers described as a “proxy war.”

Russia has allied with Bashar al-Assad’s government to combat the Islamic State and rebels, while the United States has led an international coalition to repel the terrorist group.

After a ceasefire agreement in 2020, the conflict remained largely “dormant”, with minor clashes between the rebels and the Assad regime.

More than 300,000 civilians have been killed in more than a decade of war, according to the UN, and millions of people have been displaced across the region.

This content was originally published in Video: CNN shows Bashar al-Assad’s luxury car collection on the CNN Brasil website.

Source: CNN Brasil