Bashar al Assad fell because of a "joint American and Zionist plan, and with the role of a country close to Syria", Turkey. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei sees the so-called Axis of Resistance crumbling in Gaza, Lebanon, and now in Syria, and has pointed the finger at Israel and the United States, holding them "responsible" for the precipitous end of the Damascus regime at the hands of pro-Ankara rebels.
" Israel is dismantling Iran's axis of evil ," Benjamin Netanyahu claimed, speaking to the Knesset, while his Defense Minister, Israel Katz, said Khamenei "should rather blame himself" for having invested in armed groups "in an attempt to defeat the State of Israel."
The Supreme Leader's rhetoric, however, does not foresee any steps backwards, but rather relaunches: "Ignorant analysts imagine that the resistance is weakening and Iran will also weaken, but Iran is powerful and will become even more powerful."
"The resistance front is this: the more you push, the stronger it becomes, the more you engage, the more motivated it becomes. The more you fight them, the larger it becomes," Khamenei argued in his first speech after the fall of Assad. And he warned: "The United States will not have a strong presence in Syria and the resistance front will definitely expel American forces from the region."
The ongoing raids on Syria and the IDF incursions beyond the Alpha Line border are meanwhile agitating Western chancelleries that are still studying the new masters of Damascus. France has asked Israel to "withdraw from the zone" buffer that the Jewish state is guarding to keep away the jihadist rebels who have taken power: "Any military deployment in the separation zone between Israel and Syria represents a violation of the 1974 disengagement agreement, which must be respected by the signatories," the Quai d'Orsay recalled, while Germany has invited Israel and Turkey "not to jeopardize the process of peaceful transition in Syria."
A warning also came from the Kremlin, a retreating ally of Damascus: Israeli attacks on the Golan Heights and in the buffer zone "are unlikely to contribute to stabilizing the situation in an already destabilized Syria," said spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
Moscow has confirmed that it has granted asylum to Assad: "He is safe and this shows that Russia is acting as required in such an extraordinary situation," said Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov. Asked whether Moscow would hand Assad over for trial, Ryabkov replied: "Russia is not a party to the convention that established the International Criminal Court."
(Online Union)
