Commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Hossein Salami said his country needed to “derive lessons” from the “bitter” experience in Syria.
“Syria is no place for foreign intervention,” he added in wake of the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad's regime by the opposition.
Iran spent billions of dollars to support its ally Assad during Syria’s civil war. The IRGC dispatched forces to Syria to prop up the regime after the war erupted in 2011.
Salami defended Iran’s intervention in Syria, saying: “Everyone could see that the Syrian people were living in dignity when we were there.”
“We did not go to Syria to annex its territories. We did not turn it into an arena to achieve our ambitious aspirations,” he added, according to the Fars news agency.
On Israeli attacks on Syrian army positions after the downfall of the Assad regime, he noted: “We witnessed the unfolding of unfortunate events after the demise of the regime. The Zionists are now capable of seeing as far as Damascus without the need for weapons.”
“We now realize that had the military and armed forces not resisted, the entire country could have been occupied in an instant,” Salami went on to say.
“The people of Damascus understand the value of the men of the resistance. They realize how valuable they were when they were there and what a catastrophe it is now that they are gone,” he claimed.
This was the third time that Salami has commented on the ouster of the regime, which collapsed on December 8.
Last week, he met with lawmakers for closed-door talks. He told them that Iran has not been weakened in the region. Notably absent from the meeting was Esmail Qaani, commander of the Quds Forces, which is in charge of the IRGC’s foreign operations.
On Thursday, Salami spoke with IRGC commanders, assuring them that Iran has not lost its regional proxies.
Iran had pinned blame on the regime collapse on the Syrian army, Türkiye, the United States and Israel.
Meanwhile, pro-IRGC Iranian media focused their coverage on justifying Iran’s intervention in Syria during the civil war. They also focused on Assad’s fall and its impact on Iran and its proxies.
Front pages of newspapers omitted coverage of the Syrian people’s celebrations of the ouster of the regime to focus on the damage caused by Israeli strikes on Syrian military positions. Photos of senior Turkish and Syrian opposition figures were also plastered on the front page.
MP Ismail Kawthari, an IRGC member, said Assad failed in gaining the army’s support. The military also lacked resources and support, which led to its collapse.
He revealed that Iran remained in contact with the deposed president until the very end, but some officials, such as the prime minister and some military leaders, obstructed the communication.
Syria was a significant route to supporting Hezbollah in Lebanon, he stressed.
Moreover, he said Syria officially requested Iran’s intervention during the war to combat ISIS and prevent its spread to the Iranian borders.
He charged that Syria “is still under the control of the Zionist entity, the US and their agents.” He predicted that disputes will emerge between the “forces that were brought together with American funds,” which will allow the Syrian people to realize the “deception and seek out leaders who can achieve security and improve the economy.”
