A top general in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, identified as Behrouz Esbati, publicly admitted last week that the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria was a heavy defeat for Tehran.
Esbati admitted this during statements made at an event held at the Valiasr mosque, in the capital of the Islamic regime. The general’s speeches were published by the American newspaper The New York Times.
Esbati’s position marks a significant break with the official stance of the Iranian regime, which had been minimizing the impact of the fall of its main ally in the region.
“I don’t consider losing Syria something to be proud of,” Esbati said in an audio recording released by Media Servanta news website based in Geneva. “We were defeated, and defeated very seriously. We suffered a very big blow and it has been extremely difficult”, added the general.
Break with Iran’s official line
Since the fall of Assad, Iranian authorities, including the president of the Islamic regime, Masoud Pezeshkian, have promised to respect any political solution defined by the Syrian people. However, Esbati went against this narrative by openly acknowledging the gravity of the situation and Tehran’s frustration regarding cooperation with the Assad regime before its fall.
Despite lamenting the fall of the Syrian dictator, the general revealed that the relationship between Iran and Assad had deteriorated in the months leading up to his departure from the country. According to him, Assad rejected several Iranian proposals to open, through his terrorist groups, a military front against Israel from Syrian territory, especially after the terrorist attack carried out by Hamas on October 7, 2023.
Esbati says Iran presented “comprehensive plans” for how it could use its military resources in Syria to attack Israel, but Assad did not follow through on the proposals.
Criticism of Russia
The speech also brought to light strong criticism of Russia’s stance, which is theoretically an ally of Tehran at this time. Esbati accused Moscow of misleading Iran by claiming its air forces were bombing Syrian rebels, when in fact the targets were empty fields. He also revealed that, during Israeli attacks against Iranian targets in Syria, the Russians had “turned off the radars”, facilitating Israel’s offensives.