Brigadier General Behrouz Esbati, Iran’s top military official in Syria, acknowledged in a speech last week that Iran had suffered a “stinging defeat” following the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime last month. These statements, captured in a mosque in Tehran and released on Monday, contradict the official position of the Iranian government. “I don’t consider the loss of Syria a source of pride. We were defeated, and defeated very badly, we took a very hard blow and it was very difficult,” the general said in the recording, according to the New York Times.
General Esbati also revealed that relations between Tehran and Assad had deteriorated in the months before his fall. Assad would have notably rejected Iranian requests to launch an offensive against Israel from Syrian territory after the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023.
In his speech, the soldier accuses Russia of having deceived Iran by claiming to bomb Syrian rebels while targeting empty lands. Moscow also reportedly “disabled radars”, thus facilitating Israeli strikes against Iranian positions in Syria.
Asked about possible reprisals following the elimination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, General Esbati indicated that Iran had already responded with missile strikes last fall. He admitted, however, that “the situation” did not currently permit further actions against Israel.
Regarding possible strikes against US bases, he warned that such action would provoke massive retaliation, adding that Iranian conventional missiles cannot penetrate advanced US defense systems.
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