Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei expects renewed resistance from Syrians against the country’s new leadership structures after the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad.
‘We expect a new one [resistance] group,” Khamenei said at a religious ceremony in Tehran.
Syrian youth in particular would resist those who had repeatedly made their country and their future uncertain, the cleric said, according to the ISNA news agency.
The fall of the long-time Syrian ruler was a major blow to Iran, which as a result has weakened its entire Middle East policy.
Al-Assad was considered a strategically important ally in Iran’s self-proclaimed ‘axis of resistance’ against its arch-enemy Israel. Syria also served as a corridor for Iranian arms deliveries to the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon.
The country generously supported Al-Assad, both financially and militarily, and designated Syria’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group – which led the overthrow of the regime – as a terrorist organization.
