Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Wednesday that Iran's “axis of resistance” will lead to the fall of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, who was one of Iran's main clients and vassals until he was overthrown by a lightning-fast jihadist revolt. claimed to have been strengthened only by last week.
Iran has invested huge sums of money and military power to keep President Assad in power through a decade of civil war, but Khamenei is at the mercy of an al-Qaida splinter, an extremist Sunni Islamist group that does not love Syria. He advocated the collapse of the Syrian regime. Iran, a Shia superpower, was not a major disaster. In fact, Khamenei said Iran was better off without Assad.
“This is what resistance is, a resistance front. The harder you try, the stronger you become. The more crimes you commit, the more motivated you are. The more you fight them, the more widespread it becomes. “And I say to you, by the power of God, the area of resistance will cover the whole region more than before,” said the elderly Ayatollah. lashed out During a speech in Tehran.
“The Resistance Front is not hardware that can break, crumble, or be destroyed. Resistance is a faith, a thought, a clear decision from the heart. Resistance is a school. It is a school of faith. It is a school of faith. Group faith does not grow weaker, it grows stronger under pressure,” he said.
Khamenei slammed “ignorant analysts” who claimed that the fall of Assad's regime would weaken Iran and its “resistance” network.
“I say that by the will and power of God, and by the permission of Almighty God, Iran is strong and powerful and will continue to be even more powerful,” he raged.
Like other Iranian officials, Khamenei explains why Iran did not protect President Bashar al-Assad from a swift onslaught by rebels, as Iran and Russia did during Syria's decade-long civil war. It was difficult. The Ayatollah has settled on claiming that the overthrow of Assad was a conspiracy orchestrated by the US and Israel, who used their diabolical powers to prevent the powerful Iranian military from reaching Damascus to help. .
“There is no doubt that what happened in Syria was planned in the US and Israeli command rooms. There is evidence of this,” Khamenei asserted.
“One of Syria's neighbors was also involved, but the main planners are the United States and the Zionist regime.” added. That unnamed neighbor is almost certainly Türkiye. occupy into parts of Syria with the support of a local militia alliance.
“Even under difficult circumstances, we were ready. They came to me and said that they had prepared all the necessary means for the Syrian people and were ready to leave. But the air and land were closed. The Zionist regime and the United States closed both the air and land routes in Syria. It was impossible,” he complained.
Ayatollah Khamenei placed much of the blame on the Syrian army, which faded in the face of the rebel onslaught. He accused the Syrians of allowing the United States and Israel to thwart Iran's efforts to stop the rebels' advance, saying powerful Iran was instead supporting its Lebanese client Hezbollah. He snorted that he might decide to fight against Israel. Hezbollah flees because it “cannot withstand and is braver than an army that cannot.” ”
To be fair to the Ayatollah, Hezbollah is dying more often than it is fleeing these days. Khamenei admitted that Israel's defeat of Iranian terrorist proxies in Lebanon was a “disaster”, but since then Hezbollah has become even more powerful despite its losses and has greatly threatened Israelis. He fancied that he had accepted the cease-fire offer.
“Hezbollah lost someone like Syed Hassan Nasrallah, but was this a small thing? But Hezbollah's attacks and the power of its mighty fist became more intense than before. The enemy understands this and accepts this,” he said, referring to Hezbollah's longtime dictator Hassan Nasrallah. excluded Due to Israeli air strikes in September.
Khamenei reasonably observed that Syria's many feuding factions could turn against each other, but that the young Syrians would then eliminate all occupation forces and restore Iranian influence. I made a strange prediction.
“Each of these attackers has their own objectives and their goals are different. Some of them are trying to seize land in northern and southern Syria. The United States is strengthening its foothold in the region. I'm trying to do that.''
“But as time passes, we will see that, God willing, none of them will be able to achieve their goal. The occupied territories of Syria will be liberated by committed Syrian youth.” he predicted. “Do not doubt that this will happen.”
