Official: Iran does not have an exit strategy from Syria

An Iranian official admitted that his country does not have an exit strategy from the war in Syria, and accused the head of the Syrian regime, Bashar Al-Assad, of turning his back to his country.

“Iran does not have an exit strategy from the Syrian war,” said Mostafa Zahrani, head of Policy Planning and Strategic Issues at Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Read: US envoy to UN says ‘we need to get Iran’ out of Syria

“We thought the war in Syria would be short-lived, we thought the enemy was weak and we could end it quickly,” he said in an article published on an Iranian diplomatic website.

These are rare occasions when an Iranian official criticises his country’s foreign policy.

Zahrani, who was also deputy to Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations between 2000 and 2004, continued: “We are one of the countries that did not consider the strategy of getting out of the war. This is a fundamental problem for us.”

It seems the Russians have an exit strategy from this war, their role is limited to air coverage, and we are facing a crisis in finding an exit strategy.

Zahrani also accused Al-Assad of running his back to his country and said: “Because of Russian air support and diplomatic leverage on the international scene, Bashar Al-Assad thinks that Russia can help him in confronting America and Israel more than Iran, so he apparently turns his back on Iran and goes to Russia.”

“Russia has achieved its objectives in Syria, and after that it will start negotiating with America and even Israel. The most important issue is to prevent Iran and Hezbollah from establishing a military base within reach of Israel’s borders and it seems that Russia does not oppose this policy and will ultimately agree with America and Israel,” he explained.