Iran, in an immediate move, abandoned Assad and began contacts with opposition rebels. This fact was announced by a senior Iranian official to the Reuters News Agency. This is also seen as an attempt to prevent a hostile trajectory between the two countries.
The meteoric rise of a militia alliance led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a former al-Qaeda affiliate, marked one of the biggest turning points for the Middle East in generations. Assad's fall as president would remove a bastion from which Iran and Russia exerted influence throughout the Arab world. The senior Iranian official told Reuters that Iran's clerical rulers, facing the loss of an important ally in Damascus and Donald Trump's return to the White House in January, were open to engaging with the leaders of young people of Syria, writes A2.
"This engagement is key to stabilizing ties and avoiding further regional tensions," the Iranian official told Reuters.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei will deliver a speech in Tehran on Wednesday, focusing on developments in the Middle East. This is what the official Iranian agency IRNA reported, after the latest developments in Syria, where for years Iran has been one of the strongest supporters of Bashar al-Assad.
Meanwhile, Assad's other ally, Moscow, is considering its presence in Syria and its two bases. "At the moment it is premature to talk about maintaining Russia's military presence in Syria, the matter will be discussed with the local authorities," said Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov. "It's too early to talk about that.
In any case, this is a topic of discussion with those who will be in power in Syria," Peskov told reporters when asked if Russia hopes to maintain its military presence in Syria. For his part, Russian President Vladimir Putin , has no plans to meet with Bashar al-Assad, who received political asylum in Moscow after fleeing Syria.
It is reported that the rebel flag was raised over the Syrian embassy in Moscow. So, speaking on Sky News in the United Kingdom, British minister Pat McFadden suggested that England could consider changing the status of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which London currently designates as a terrorist group. "We'll take it into consideration. And I think it will depend in part on what happens," McFadden said. The British government labeled Hayat Tahrir al-Sham a terrorist organization in May 2017. (A2 Televizion)
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