Iran’s Power Undiminished Despite Assad’s Fall: IRGC Commander

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards commander stated on Tuesday that the Islamic Republic remains strong despite ally Bashar al-Assad’s fall in Syria, according to Iranian media reports.

“We have not been weakened and Iran’s power has not diminished,” Hossein Salami was quoted as telling members of parliament in a closed session.

Iran and Russia had propped up Assad’s rule since Syria‘s civil war erupted in 2011 with military support, men and airpower. Tehran deployed its Revolutionary Guards to Syria to keep its ally in power to maintain Tehran’s “Axis of Resistance” to Israel and U.S. influence in the Middle East.

Assad’s exit has eroded Iran’s ability to project power and sustain its network of militia groups across the region, particularly to its ally Hezbollah in Lebanon, which agreed a ceasefire with Israel last month.

“The overthrow of the Zionist regime (Israel) is not off the agenda,” Salami said in the session which met to discuss the latest developments in Syria.

Salami said no Iranian forces remained in Syria.

Following Assad’s fall from power, Iran’s foreign ministry called for a national dialogue to form an inclusive government representing all segments of Syrian society.

Iran’s government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani on Tuesday called for “respect for Syria’s territorial integrity”, saying the Syrian people should decide their own fate.

The defiant language from Tehran cannot conceal the fact that Iran, as a France24 report noted, was depending on the alliances it had built stretching from Tehran to Beirut on the Mediterranean Sea.

Those alliances enabled it to weaponise the threat of use of groups like Hezbollah in Lebanon or the Shia militias in Iraq. Add to that it also emerged as the main backer of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, making it complicit perhaps in the Oct 7, 2023 attack on Israel that has ironically, ended in the devastation of Hamas and Hezbollah.

(With inputs from Reuters)