Iran General admits Tehran was ‘defeated very badly’ in losing influence in Syria after toppling of Assad regime

Iran was “defeated very badly” and suffered a “very big blow” in losing its influence in Syria with the toppling of the late regime of Bashar Al-Assad last month, a senior Iranian General has reportedly admitted.

According to the New York Times, which cited local Iranian media, Iranian Brigadier-General, Behrouz Esbati, gave a speech last week in a mosque in the capital, Tehran, in which he stated that “we were defeated and defeated very badly, we took a very big blow, and it’s been very difficult”.

The senior General was referring to the rapid rebel offensive that swept through Syria in early December, leading to the conquest of Damascus and the subsequent overthrow of the Assad regime.

That development has robbed Tehran of its influence in the country, where it supported and militarily assisted Assad throughout the 13-year-long civil war, possessed numerous sites and bases, and operated a significant number of military advisors and Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp (IRGC) commanders. “I don’t consider losing Syria something to be proud of,” Esbati stated.

He also revealed that Assad had prevented Iran from launching attacks on Israel from Syrian territory following Hamas’s attacks into Israel on 7 October 2023, with the former Syrian president reportedly neglecting plans that Iran had brought to him detailing how it could do so.

In his speech, Esbati also rallied against Russia’s alleged involvement in the Syria debacle, claiming that Russian air strikes had simply bombed open fields in Syria during the rebel offensive, rather than actually hitting opposition targets.

Despite Iran’s loss of influence in Syria, the senior General said that Tehran would continue to push into the country and operate within it, stating that “we can activate all the networks we have worked with over the years. We can activate the social layers that our guys lived among for years; we can be active in social media, and we can form resistance cells.”

Read: Syria FM demands Iran not to spread chaos in the country