UNCERTAIN FUTURE IN SYRIA, IRAN SAYS

Iran has made it known on Wednesday, in an official statement, that it considers the future of Syria to be “uncertain”, taking into account the current situation, although without clarifying which aspects of the political panorama of the latter country it refers to. Damascus has requested, for its part, that alarmist statements not be spread that could complicate the process of normalization underway.

In this regard, the foreign minister of the new Syrian government, Asaad Hassan al-Shibani, has formulated a direct response, asking the countries that maintain relations with Damascus “not to contribute to the opening of a period of chaos”

It is evident that the changes that have occurred in Iran, with the end of the years presided over by Bashir El Assad, have caused unrest in Iran, where the Islamic leaders maintained a positive relationship with the president of the country.

Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has described the events in Syria as a plot by the United States and Israel, with agency by neighbouring Turkiye. Khamenei said Iran was partly repaying Syria since Hafez al-Assad, the deposed president's father, assisted Iran when it was being invaded by neighbouring Iraq in the 1980s.

These accusations have been denied in the three designated capitals, where analysts understand the Islamic republic's unease, especially if the new Syria establishes strong diplomatic ties with Washington and Tek Aviv, which would in some way contribute to changing the existing panorama in the Middle East.

At the beginning of the changes in Syria, most commentators estimated that it would be the Islamists who would remain in power, even with the support of movements considered terrorists. Iran, on the other hand, has adopted a different position and considers that it is Israel and the United States that have come out on top. This controversy will take some time to resolve.

Tehran's intelligence services may have picked up signals that the fall of the Assad clan benefits the West. A theory that had no supporters at the beginning of the rapid victory of the HTS (Hayat Tahrir al-Sham) movement but which could evolve towards positions contrary to the Islamists.

It should be noted that Syria, under the presidency of Al Assad, received from Iran financial assistance estimated at billions of dollars; most of it sent during the civil war that began in 2011 until the ceasefire 13 years later.

(picture: Asaad Hassan al-Shibani, syrian foreign minister)