Assad allies Russia, Iran target US, Israel over HTS takeover of Syria

Iran on Wednesday slammed the US and Israel for toppling the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’ regime, saying what happened in Syria was mainly planned in the command rooms of the two countries.

Russia joined Iran in criticising Israel, blaming it for the strikes on Syria and permitting its forces to enter the buffer zone along the Golan Heights following Assad’s downfall.

“What happened in Syria was mainly planned in the command rooms of America and Israel. We have evidence of this,” Reuters quoted Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as saying in a speech

“A neighbouring government of Syria was also involved. The neighbour had a clear role and continues to do so,” added Khamenei, referring to Turkey, which has backed anti-Assad rebels.

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NATO member Turkey, which controls swathes of land in northern Syria after several cross-border incursions against the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, has been a main backer of opposition groups aiming to topple Assad since the outbreak of the civil war in 2011.

Iran spent billions of dollars propping up Assad during the war and deployed its Revolutionary Guards to Syria to keep its ally in power.

Hours after Assad’s fall, Iran said it expected relations with Damascus to continue based on the two countries’ “far-sighted and wise approach” and called for the establishment of an inclusive government representing all segments of Syrian society.

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In his speech, Khamenei also said the Iran-led alliance would gain in strength across the entire region.

“The more pressure you exert, the stronger the resistance becomes. The more crimes you commit, the more determined it becomes. The more you fight against it, the more it expands Khamenei said.

“Iran is strong and powerful—and will become even stronger,” he said.

Kremlin, meanwhile, played down the damage to Russian influence in the Middle East from the fall Assad and said it wants to see the country quickly “stabilised.”

“The strikes, the actions in the Golan Heights, and the buffer zone hardly contribute to the stabilisation of the situation in the already destabilised Syria,” Reuters quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying.

Peskov said Moscow was in contact with the new rulers of Syria and that its focus was primarily on Ukraine as of now.

When Russia intervened in the Syrian Civil War in 2015, it helped tip the balance in Assad’s favour, so his fall from power dealt a serious setback to both Russia, which is fighting a major land war in Ukraine, and to Iran, which is battling US-backed Israel across the Middle East.

“You know, of course, that we are in contact with those who are currently in control of the situation in Syria,” Peskov said.

Asked how much the fall of Assad had weakened Russia’s influence in the region, Peskov said that Moscow maintained contacts with all countries in the region and would continue to do so.

Moscow’s priority, Peskov said, was the war in Ukraine, which President Vladimir Putin calls a “special military operation”.

“The special military operation is the absolute priority for our country: we must ensure the interests of our security, the interests of our Russian people, and we shall do so,” Peskov said.

Moscow has supported Syria since the early days of the Cold War, recognising its independence in 1944 as Damascus sought to throw off French colonial rule. The West saw Syria as a Soviet satellite.

Syrian rebels, led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a former al Qaeda affiliate, seized the capital Damascus unopposed on Sunday after a lightning advance that sent Assad fleeing to Russia after a 13-year civil war and six decades of his family’s autocratic rule.

In one of the biggest turning points for the Middle East in generations, the fall of Assad’s government wiped out a bastion from which Iran and Russia exercised influence across the Arab world.

Moscow gave asylum to Assad and his family.

With inputs from agencies