Iranian Commander: Russia Betrayed us in Syria! We Have New Plans

Jan 31, 2025

Recent comments by IRGC Commander Behrouz Esbati about the collapse of Assad regime and the betrayal of Iranian interests in Syria have been widely publicized and controversial. The following are English translation of excerpts from his Persian speech:

The Syrian regime was plagued with financial corruption. They were widespread power outages across the country. We expected a collapse soon. Bribery and corruption was everywhere. Even we had to bribe local military commanders for a safe passage. Russians were among the key factors Iranian bases were destroyed in Syria. Russians were totally aligned with Israelis. They turned off their radars during Israeli attacks on our bases that led to the martyrdom of our senior commanders.

We were ready to attack Israel from Golan heights after October 7 along with Palestinians, Syrian and Hezbollah forces, but Assad rejected the plan and said we will not join you. You need to bring your own weapons and fight for yourself. Later, when rebels attacked, the Assad regime refused to give us ammunition to fight against the rebels. Syrians even returned our air plane and military cargo from their airspace.

Assad's wife is close to Arab states in the Persian Gulf. They disrespected our President in Syria. She allowed Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates to replace Iran's financial support for Syria [this is after Iran's economy weakened due to trump's sanctions]. They kicked 80% of our staff and resources out of their residences.

We see this as an opportunity to grow resistance from inside Syria. There are many young men there who want to be organized and fight from inside Syria. We can have a fresh organizational start there together with the young leadership in Hezbollah who is in place now after the losses in old leadership. Don't worry about arming the new resistance in Syria. That's not a problem. My main concern is the loss of morale in the resistance if Iran backs out.

Assad Putin

We are very unhappy about leaving Syria, but at this point, attacking Israel means being attacked and derailing our plans. We need to preserve our military strength to achieve our long term goals.

Related to Israel:

Related to Russia:

Related to Syria:

»This is a summary of the original feature in Farsi. To request a more extensive translation of the Farsi text, please contact us.

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