Iran says it wants to maintain ties with Syria, its key ally, even after the fall of President Bashar al-Assad

According to Al Jazeera, Iran said that it hopes to keep ties with Syria when President Bashar al-Assad, its primary supporter, is overthrown, but that opposition organizations’ stance toward Israel would be important.

According to Al Jazeera, Iran’s government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani urged “respect for Syria’s territorial integrity” on Tuesday and said that the Syrian people have to make their own decisions.

She said that “their distance from the Zionist regime” will be a crucial determining factor in Iran’s future ties with Syria.

In a meeting held behind closed doors in their parliament on Tuesday, Hossein Salami, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), said that there are presently no Iranian soldiers left in Syria, according to Al Jazeera.

Salami said that MPs in attendance claimed Iranian personnel remained in Syria until the last days of al-Assad’s rule, arguing that this pullout did not imply Tehran’s influence had been lessened.

According to Mohajerani, since Assad’s fall, 4,000 Iranian nationals have returned from Syria on ten flights operated by Iranian airline Mahan.

Reports that Tehran had opened a direct channel of communication with the armed forces who overthrew Syria’s royal family, which had been linked with Iran for more than 40 years, have not been addressed.

Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, consistently referred to the opposition’s assaults in Syria, spearheaded by the opposition armed organization Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), as a “American-Zionist ploy” to further destabilize the region in the wake of Israel’s war on Gaza, according to Al Jazeera, before Assad withdrew.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has threatened to take “necessary” action if the present government allows Iran to re-establish itself in Syria or provides weapons to Hezbollah, despite Israel’s “no intention of interfering” in Syria’s internal affairs.

“We do not want to meddle in the internal affairs of Syria. We do, however, plan to take the required steps to ensure our security.

https://twitter.com/IsraeliPM/status/1866544377545494715?

I thus support the Air Force’s bombardment of Syria’s military’s remaining strategic assets. in order to keep them out of the hands of jihadists. In a video speech on Tuesday, Netanyahu compared this to the British Air Force’s action of bombing the Vichy regime’s fleet, which was collaborating with the Nazis, to prevent it from falling into the hands of the Nazis.