SYRIAN CHAOS: WHAT I HEARD FROM IRANIANS

There are those who believe that Russia, Iran or both had betrayed Assad and the secular Syrian state. Well, I heard something different from two separate female Iranian journalists. One of whom is Fereshteh Sadeghi who used to work for Press TV. She said that there have been tensions for a long time between Assad and the Iranians.

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Once the frontlines stabilized with the conflict frozen at the Idlib jihadist enclave in 2018, Assad requested that all IRGC special combat forces be withdrawn from Syria. The Iranian government complied, leaving only a limited number of IRGC officers behind as military advisors in Syria.

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When the Saudis, Emiratis, Qataris and the Arab League normalized relations with Assad, Syria began to drift further away from the Iranian orbit. Last year, when Israel began to pound Gaza Strip, the Iranian government asked Assad to allow the IRGC paramilitaries to open another battlefront in the Golan Heights and President Assad bluntly refused. Apart from allowing Iran to continue supplying Hezbollah through Syria, the Assad government did nothing more to support Iranian/Hezbollah effort to combat Israel.

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Ayatollah Khamenei sent a message to Assad to warn him that the Gulf Arabs were toying with him. Emiratis were making empty promises to finance the "sanctioned-to-death" Syrian economy on condition that Assad distances himself from Iran and Hezbollah. Assad ignored the warnings of the Iranians. In any case, Assad was not particularly friendly to Hamas because a faction of the Hamas had fought alongside the Jihadist head choppers in Syria. (**I think there was a smaller Hamas faction that remained "neutral" and did not fight on either side of the Syrian conflict**).

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Two months ago, Iranian intelligence detected some military preparations within the Idlib Jihadi Safe Haven. This intelligence was communicated to President Assad, but again he ignored it. Iran also joined Russia in pressuring Assad to meet Turkish leader Recep Erdogan, but Assad remained unmoved. He would not meet Erdogan unless Turkey removed its troops from Syrian soil and stopped supporting the pro-Turkish "rebels".

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Iran also raised concerns directly with Turkey over intelligence reports about the military preparations of the terrorists in the Jihadi Safe Haven, the lying Turkish government assured Iran that all was well. The terrorists couldn't move without Turkey's order. The lying Turks claimed that they were strictly sticking to the terms of the Astana Peace Process.

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As Aleppo fell to the jihadists, Iranian officials in Tehran began to panic and disagreements broke out amongst them. Some wanted to rush IRGC troops into Syria without formal permission from Assad. Others wanted a formal invitation from Assad before the IRGC forces enter. An Iranian diplomat met Assad as Syrian troops withdrew to Hama. He told Assad that IRGC troops will enter Syria if there was a formal invitation. Assad refused to authorize the invitation.

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Iraqi Shia paramilitaries rushed towards the Syria-Iraq border to join the fight. At that point, the Iranian government told the Iraqi Shia militia leaders that there was no authorization from Assad. If they went ahead and crossed the international border, then they were on their own. Iran won't provide any help.

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When the Iranians heard that Assad was quietly negotiating with the Americans through Emirati intermediaries, the Iranians stopped referring to the jihadi head choppers as "takfiris". Using the polite term "opposition forces", the Iranian government negotiated directly with Mohammed al Jolani's people to get IRGC military advisors safely out of Syria. Those advisors still in Assad-controlled Damascus were evacuated along with Iranian embassy workers and diplomats.

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Nevertheless, even to the last moment, the Iranians kept pushing Assad to authorize IRGC troops to enter the country. When Assad refused to grant a personal audience to Ayatollah Khamenei's special envoy, Brigadier-General Ali Larijani, the Iranians finally gave up on Syria. Within 24 hours, Assad was gone. The jihadi head choppers took over.

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Photo: President Assad of Syria meeting the late President Ebrahim Raisi of Iran on 8 May 2022