Assad regime's collapse is a devastating defeat for Iran

The Assad regime's fall marks a damaging defeat for Iran, the latest in a string of setbacks that have punctured assumptions about Tehran’s power in the region.

The swift collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian regime represents a devastating defeat for Iran, the latest in a string of setbacks that have punctured long held assumptions in the West about Tehran’s military prowess.

In recent months, Iran has proved unable to thwart Israeli covert operations from targeting key figures in the regime, defend itself from damaging Israeli airstrikes, or protect an ally next door that was a linchpin in its regional proxy network, dubbed the “axis of resistance.”

For decades, Syria has served as a vital land bridge to Iran’s Hezbollah militia in Lebanon, allowing Tehran to ferry weapons to its partners across the Syrian border. After a mass uprising against Assad in 2011, Russia provided air power for Damascus and Iran propped up the brutal ruler with weapons, cash, Iranian Revolutionary Guard officers and militants from Iranian-backed proxy forces in Lebanon, Iraq and elsewhere. 

But when Syrian rebel forces seized Aleppo last month against poorly trained, demotivated Syrian army troops, Iran was caught off guard at a difficult moment, with its military depleted from Israeli air raids and its proxy forces in Lebanon decimated from fighting with Israel, current and former U.S. officials said. As the rebels pressed ahead, there was no concerted effort to stop the advance with Russian warplanes or Iranian-backed proxy forces. 

The dramatic events over the weekend marked “a fundamental change in the equation of the entire Middle East,” a senior Biden administration official told reporters on Sunday.“Assad was effectively abandoned because his only friends ... Iran, Hezbollah and Russia, no longer had the capacity to help,” the official added.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/assad-regimes-collapse-devastating-defeat-iran-rcna183369

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