Five days after losing the provincial capital of Idlib in northwest Syria to rebels, the Assad regime has admitted defeat.

Well, sort of.

The quasi-admission is cloaked in a protest by the Foreign Ministry about a UN statement “on the dangerous events in Idlib”, claiming it is “falsifying realities and misleading the international public opinion”.

Tuesday’s statement by the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Syria, Yacoub El Hillo, appears to be a neutral call for protection of civilians and humanitarian personnel after the rebel takeover of Idlib: “I appeal to all parties to de-escalate hostilities and to allow humanitarian agencies to deliver urgently needed life-saving help, which can offer some reprieve from the daily suffering of the Syrians.”

However, the Assad regime took offense that the UN statement did not focus solely on “armed terrorist organizations” and blame them for the flight of 30,000 people — many of them evacuated by Syrian civil defense, in anticipation of retaliatory bombing by the Syrian air force — from Idlib.

See Syria Daily, April 1: Regime Bombing After Loss of Idlib — “More Than 50 Killed”

The Foreign Ministry never actually admits that the opposition controls Idlib. Instead, it explains that “thousands of terrorists from ‘Jabhat al-Nusra’ attacked the two cities of Busra al-Sham [in southern Syria, also taken by rebels last week] and Idlib after firing them with hundreds of rocket shells for many days”.

Specifically, the Ministry tries to turn the regime’s bombing of key administrative and service buildings, including the main hospital in Idlib, against the rebels: “It is…regrettable the UNCHR [UN High Commission for Refugees] claims that Syrian government’s planes bombarded the Red Crescent Hospital in Idlib while those, whom the press statement describes as ‘armed anti-government groups’, destroyed the hospital.”

The statement concludes — without specifically saying whether or not the Syrian military is still in Idlib — “The army of the Syrian Arab Republic fights terrorism on behalf of the Syrian people and the peoples of world countries in defense of humanity, justice, freedom, and good life values.”