The wife of deposed Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad is severely ill with leukaemia and has been given a 50/50 chance of survival, media reports have claimed.
Asma Assad is being isolated to prevent infection and cannot be in the same room as other people, the Telegraph newspaper also reported.
The Assad family fled to Moscow as a lightning rebel offensive swept Syria’s capital Damascus earlier this month.
British-born Ms Assad and their children left for Russia ahead of the former president, and she is now reportedly being cared for by her father Fawaz Akhras, a respected Harley Street cardiologist, who is said to be “heartbroken”.
Syria’s presidency announced in May that Ms Assad, the then-first lady, had been diagnosed with an acute form of leukaemia, a cancer of the bone marrow and blood.
She had previously been treated for breast cancer, and in 2019 announced she was free of the disease after a year of treatment.
The Telegraph reported her leukaemia is believed to have reappeared after a period of remission.
Previous reports have suggested Ms Assad is tired of restrictions placed upon her in Russia, wants to divorce her husband and to seek treatment in London.
The Kremlin has denied this, though the Assad family has not commented.
David Lammy, the UK’s foreign secretary, has said Ms Assad – who was born in London in 1975 – is not welcome to return to the UK.
“I’ve seen mentioned in the last few days Asma Assad, potentially someone with UK citizenship that might attempt to come into our country, and I want it confirmed that she’s a sanctioned individual and is not welcome here in the UK,” he told the House of Commons following the fall of the Assad regime.
UK prime minister Keir Starmer has meanwhile said it is “far too early” to say whether Ms Assad, a dual British-Syrian national, could be stripped of UK citizenship.
Senior British officials have recently travelled to Damascus to meet with representatives of the new Syrian regime, which is led by an Islamist group called Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. – PA